It was a good Qualifying, I had a great lap in Q3 - it gives you great satisfaction to put in a good lap, especially at a track like this as it’s a circuit for brave drivers. Conditions were not ideal for anyone because we missed out on track time yesterday, but I generally don’t need a lot of laps to find good pace. I brushed the wall on one of my laps, but you need to have big balls around this track to get the best time. Tomorrow’s a long race and we’ll try and put everything together - I think we have a chance for a strong result. The race can be very unpredictable, so I’ll keep a cool head and do the best job I can.

It was a bit of a frustrating end to Qualifying. We had the pace for Q3 the whole weekend, just not when it mattered. I was struggling with the tyre temperatures and trying to get them in the right range, especially after the big temperature drop near the end of the session. Maybe I didn’t get the warm up lap right, because I struggled for confidence when the track was cold and the car started to slide around a bit. Tomorrow’s a new day and anything can happen here, we’ve seen how chaotic it can be so it’s all to play for.

Both drivers reported a reasonable balance during FP3, as such, the changes for Qualifying were limited to ensure that tyres and run length were optimised to the track and ambient conditions. In Q1, the time set on the first lap of the second run was sufficient to see both cars through to Q2. However, the Red Flag resulted in the session being delayed and, subsequently, we ended the session in cooler temperatures than expected, which presented an extra challenge for the drivers and engineers. Dany was able to make it into Q3 but unfortunately Alex, although having been very competitive so far in Baku, was not able to do so on this occasion. To try and deal best with the cooler temperatures, we elected to continue with a push-cool-push approach for Q3, with Dany putting in a very good lap to secure sixth on the grid for the race, which is a great reward for the team’s effort. We now switch our focus to the race and, with the pace shown so far this weekend, scoring points with both cars.

This was a very complicated Qualifying with two Red Flags but Daniil did well to be sixth quickest to give Scuderia Toro Rosso its first top ten Qualifying result of the season. It is a positive result with which to go into tomorrow’s race. This result is down to all the hard work from everyone at Honda and our partner teams, as together we have produced two strong car packages for this event. Alex who will start from 12th place, having qualified 13th did not get a clean lap in Q2 because of traffic and he brushed the wall, but with the strong pace he showed all weekend, he can move up the order tomorrow. Our aim has to be to get all four cars home in the top ten with plenty of points.