We knew it was going to be a bit of a struggle this weekend, but everything came together in the end. Yesterday wasn’t the best start but I think we kept on improving and getting better. My final lap today wasn’t ideal, I gave it everything I had and risked it all in the third sector, as I knew I was behind. I clipped a few barriers but I’m happy to be on pole here for the first time. Tomorrow we need a clean start, it’s a short run to turn one and in Monaco a lot of things can happen. Race pace wise the car is quick so hopefully we can have a positive day.

I am really disappointed with myself today. It was going well; I was happy with the balance and in Q1 naturally you are progressing and finding new limits. Going into the corner I just lost the rear end quite late, which caught me out and I had nowhere to go, I could not cut the corner or get out of the corner. Unfortunately, that meant I ended up touching the wall and I cannot believe what I have done. This mistake is too difficult to digest right now, I don’t know what to say, I am just sorry for my Team, they don’t deserve this. We will assess the car and see how the damage is, then we can make some decisions ahead of the race. We would have been in the mix for sure today, so it is doubly disappointing, it was a big opportunity for us. It’s a big hit in the Championship for me and I have probably lost a lot of points. If it’s a normal race it will be hard to do anything tomorrow, I have a fast car but it’s nearly impossible to pass here with these wide cars, it is going to be tricky to make progress, but we will try everything.

A big congratulations to the team. We struggled a lot yesterday during both practice sessions but made a big step forward overnight. I felt a positive change in FP3 straight away and we were able to find extra performance on top of it for qualifying. The massive work done by the mechanics and engineers showed; I felt confident immediately, especially during the last run in Q1. From then on, I enjoyed it a lot. It was my first Q3 appearance in Monaco and it was definitely special. I am happy with my performance, which allows us to start the race in the points position, so I will give it my all and extract everything possible to be able to score points tomorrow.

It was a challenging session, and we knew already before going into Q1 that it would be messy because of traffic. Of course, we always want more, but it has been a solid weekend so far. If we repeat the good work we have executed so far in tomorrow’s race, we can be satisfied with ourselves and the weekend in general. The track evolution is big here and you could see the track was only coming alive during qualifying when it counts, and the team did a good job of constantly improving with the changing circumstances. I have raced here previously, but it’s another level in a Formula 1 car, and I am excited for tomorrow!