Sebastian Vectel: I was surprised we couldn’t make Q2. I felt that my lap was great, even though I was stopped at the end the second sector. This cost me a few tenths of a race and gave me the chance to advance. It was very busy, especially at the lap end, which made things more complicated. It is obvious that the track is not suitable for our car in qualifying trim. However, our race pace is traditionally stronger this season so we will see how we can improve tomorrow. Although it hurts to be in P17, we can still try to move up the field if we have an exciting race tomorrow.

Lance Stroll : “I’m really disappointed that I ended up in P18. Traffic at the end of the session destroyed my qualifying. It was like being in a parking lot. There was nothing I could do. It meant that I couldn’t do a flying lap at the track’s best, and it was very expensive. We would have been able to get into Q2 if we had not done this. We will review the results to determine if we could have done it differently. We have never raced here before so we will be watching how tomorrow unfolds and trying to make up for lost places.

Otmar Zaffnauer, CEO and Team Principal: It is obvious that our car was not suited for this fast circuit’s unusual characteristics in qualifying today. Lance and Sebastian did their best. We expect this race to be difficult because it is not easy to overtake. However, we will analyze the data tonight in an effort to devise a race strategy that works for us.