Another Sprint Qualifying event with qualifying coming after just one hour of free practice here in Sao Paulo. This format means that we only get two and a half hours after practice to decide on our settings for the weekend, because of the Parc Ferme conditions. It means it’s a busy weekend for the engineers and mechanics, having to analyse the data and optimise PU and chassis settings in much less time than usual. However, the process was very smooth today, partly because we could count on the experience of the two previous events with this format at Silverstone and Monza. It was a decent start to the weekend for us, with three drivers qualifying in the top five: Max second, Checo fourth and Pierre fifth. On his first visit to Interlagos, Yuki unfortunately did not make the cut to Q3 and starts 13th. However, he has shown good pace in practice and in qualifying so we expect him and the other three drivers to make use of the Sprint Qualifying tomorrow to secure a good start position for the Grand Prix itself on Sunday. We can expect it to be very close once again with our main title rivals in both the short and the long races and we will be doing our best to get another good result here in Brazil.

I’m happy to be second, that’s a good position to start from in tomorrow’s sprint race. I always want to be closer but sometimes you have to be realistic. Mercedes have taken a new engine so naturally they have more power this weekend, so for me it’s not a big shock that they are ahead. There are not many points to gain tomorrow in the sprint race, so I hope we have a good start and we’ll see what happens from there. Of course, the most important race is on Sunday and I think it’s going to be a lot warmer which will change the behaviour of the car as well, so we’ll see.

It was a bit tricky today, especially in Q1 having to use two sets of tyres, so we started on the wrong foot in qualifying, but we were progressing well and gaining into Q3. Then I think the track cooled down a bit and we didn’t read the conditions as well as we could have. We got it together for our final lap and we only lacked half a tenth or so to be further ahead. That said, fourth is a strong position to start the sprint race from. I think Mercedes’ new engine seems to be working pretty well, Lewis was untouchable today, but we will see tomorrow. Hopefully tomorrow we can have a good sprint race because the car has shown some good pace and I think it should be looking good.

Today I’m really, really happy. FP1 was quite difficult for me and I struggled a little bit in Quali too, but every time I went out I managed to find a little bit more, playing with everything inside of the car and making small improvements each time we ran. I managed to put it all together when it counted and I think it was a really incredible lap in Q3 today, so I’m really pleased with that. It’s really amazing for us to be Qualifying right behind Mercedes and Red Bull, it’s a critical moment in the Championship and the team did a fantastic job today. Of course, it’s only Friday so we’ve got two more days, it’s going to be pretty intense, but we’ve put ourselves in the best place possible.

This is another new track for me, so practice was really important this morning and I think I managed to get up to speed quite quickly, which was good. The car feels good round this track, so it’s a shame I couldn’t make it through to Q3 today. I think Sprint Qualifying tomorrow is going to be a bit tricky starting from this position, but I’ll try to make my way forward so I can start Sunday’s race in a stronger place.