It is really nice but definitely unexpected to get pole today. The Team made some final adjustments going into Qualifying which allowed me to be a bit more comfortable in the car and attack the corners. Our progression in Qualifying was really nice: we tried to improve run by run and it felt good in the car and we made things a lot more comfortable. The tyres were overheating less which was positive, we found the right balance and when everything cooled down a bit, the car came alive at night. I’m really proud of the Team, after the red flag they stayed calm and chose the right strategy. I wasn’t entirely sure what the right call was and then GP came on the radio and the Team were definitely right. It is always a Team effort, all the engineers helped with this and helped improve on particular corners. I knew what I had to do to beat the lap record but it’s always extremely rewarding to put a good lap together here. Looking to tomorrow, it will be a bit more tricky as here you can pass if you have more pace. There are a few more DRS zones, so it will be difficult to keep everyone behind but we will give it everything that we have.

It was an okay Saturday to finish P8. Congrats to Max on pole, he did a great lap. My last push lap in Q3 was quite messy and I was expecting slightly more today. We are still learning and it feels like there’s always something that happens when I push more, unpredictable things happen, and it’s been quite difficult to put everything together for a clean lap. It’s pretty frustrating when I can’t put it all together in Q3 when it counts, but it is at least positive to be in Q3 again this weekend. Some of the difficulties are due to experience, it is only my third race with the Team but my confidence is building up in the car, I have to keep pushing and we want more. Hopefully we can be more consistent in the race tomorrow, our setup is more focused on the long run rather than the short run and I had more confidence in those laps. I will do my best to overtake and to finish with good points.

The very first lap of Qualifying I thought we had a nice car and it felt since then we didn’t make any progress. We were simply not fast enough for Q3. You can’t really make mistakes here, it's concrete walls, not barriers or tyres. I have struggled the whole weekend so far, but Liam did a very good job and was able to maximise the car today, it was the best the car could do. I don’t think it’s harder than any other track, it’s just hard to extract the most from it. I think I had two tenths in my lap and that would have been a perfect lap. I expected more on the last lap of Q2, so it’s a bit disappointing. I didn’t have a nice feeling around the lap or consistent balance, you constantly have to adapt corner by corner, which is quite tough. I think it’s going to be a one stop race, so opportunities are limited but I am looking forward to tomorrow and we will try our best.

The work the team have done on the car has been very, very good. I think we did everything we could and put ourselves in the greatest possible position for Qualifying. It's obviously good to extract everything out the car and I did the best lap I've done all weekend, but unfortunately we were just shy of where we needed to be pace wise. It's tough when the midfield is super close. Every race I'm becoming more confident with the car. We've come from a track in Bahrain which is super technical and then you come here and you've just got to commit as hard as you can. It's exciting to drive, it raises the heart rate, but obviously it bites hard as well which we've seen today. I'll try and create as many opportunities as possible tomorrow.