It was a great day for us and good to be so competitive here at this track. To get Pole here is big: we need to celebrate these successes and it was a confidence boost for sure. It is always tough round here and you have to really commit with low downforce and hit the apex perfectly. It is great to get the fastest lap but I never look at these kind of stats as it depends on so many different factors. There is new tarmac which helps and in every session we got a little bit better, which is what we wanted. The car was in a better window and I had a lot more confidence to go for it and attack the corners. Tomorrow, of course, the win is always the target. The McLarens are pretty strong so it will be tough to beat them, but if the feeling of the tyres are better then who knows, we might be able to.

Reaching Q3 was exactly what I wanted to achieve today and I am happy to see the progress that we are making race by race which resulted in winning points at Zandvoort last weekend. It was a shame that I was first to take to the track in Q3 and had to lead the pack, as traditionally Monza is a track that needs slipstream. I would like to congratulate the Team overall this weekend and Max for putting it on pole, it has not been easy in general but I felt the strength of the adaptation that everyone in the garage has shown. I feel like I demonstrated consistency in Q3 and was only a tenth behind Max which is positive. Since the upgrade brought to Spa we have been making progress but the balance definitely still feels a bit messy. Tomorrow won’t be easy and our one lap pace wasn’t beautiful but I am feeling confident.

It was a frustrating Qualifying session for us. Carlos was out there on used tyres and I felt like he was fighting hard to find the right track position. I still don’t know what he was doing, but my outlap was compromised, which was followed by a mistake I made in my push lap. Overall though, our car is very fast around here. I was really happy with the feeling I had this morning in FP3 and during my first run in Q1, but starting last means that we’re going to have a challenging race. We’ll try our best to make a great recovery tomorrow.

A really disappointing session. Our lap was compromised when I picked up dirty air and had understeer through the middle of Turn 6, which caused me to run off track. It’s a shame because the car has been very quick all weekend. We had a few issues, but the guys in the garage worked hard and got everything sorted in time for Qualifying. This track isn’t straightforward, but there are overtaking opportunities. Starting from where I am, there are a lot of cars to get through, it’s going to be tough, but I’ll try my best to move forward.