I’m happy to finish in eighth today. I had a fantastic feeling with the car and we’ve been getting better with each session. The work last night and in final practice really paid off and we took big steps forward in the build-up to qualifying. So I have to say a big ‘thank you’ to the team because we are really making good progress with this car. I think there is all to play for tomorrow: we are often stronger with race pace so the job tomorrow is to try and get ahead of Hulkenberg and bring home some big points.

I’m a bit disappointed to have finished behind the Renaults, but I am still confident we can fight with them tomorrow. Our set-up was completely geared towards the race and I felt it was very difficult to deliver a clean flying lap. Tomorrow, however, we should have an advantage and the opportunity to score good points. The first stint will be very important: degradation is quite high around here and we need to make sure we manage the hypersoft and don’t have to pit too early. The cars starting outside the top ten will be on a better tyre compound and we’ll need to fight them off if we want our strategy to work. This is what we’ve been working for and hopefully tomorrow it will work in our favour.

A solid qualifying effort by the team, which leaves us well placed to score important points tomorrow. The car has been quick here throughout practice so it’s rewarding to deliver on our potential with both cars through to Q3 for the third time this season. Esteban’s laps were clean and tidy and he came within a tenth of beating Hulkenberg into seventh place. Checo struggled a bit more in Q3 with the set-up, but we’re confident the race pace will be strong.