Saturday Team Quotes

McLaren Formula 1 Team

Lando Norris (4th, 1:15.001): "We showed some progress today and I'm reasonably happy with P4. The Red Flag in the final corner on my first push lap was unlucky and probably cost us a shot at P3, but P4 is still a strong place to start. Compared to Monaco, we're back closer to where we should be, and the pace felt better overall. With that said, the gap to Pole, around three and a half tenth, is still significant, and the car wasn't easy to drive with the wind and heat making it inconsistent, especially at the rear. Looking at tomorrow, it's going to be a hot, high-degradation race and tyre management will be everything. Strategy could go one, two, or even three stops depending on how the tyres behave, and I think most teams will end up doing similar things. There's definitely an opportunity off the start, with smart calls, to move forward, but sustaining that against Ferrari and Mercedes over 66 laps will be tough. We'll fight for every chance, maximise track position and try to force errors, but we're realistic - if we're three tenths off per lap today, we need to be perfect to stay in the mix tomorrow. Overall, happy with the step we've made, not happy enough with the gap. We'll keep pushing."

Oscar Piastri (7th, 1:15.090): "It was incredibly tight today, with such a small gap from third down to us in P7. We lost more than expected in the final sector, so we need to review why because the lap up to then felt good. Right now, Mercedes looks strong, and Ferrari have taken a step with their upgrades - their corner speeds have been impressive all season, even if they're still paying a price on the straights. Tomorrow will likely be a long, hot two-stop race, maybe more, and the key will be managing degradation and maintaining pace across the stints. While Mercedes and Ferrari were quicker today than yesterday, strategy and tyre offsets could open up opportunities, and we feel more in the fight than last week. If the race plays out like we've seen here in recent years, with multiple stops and differing tyre life, there's definitely a chance to gain a few positions."

Andrea Stella, Team Principal: "We are back in a situation where four teams are incredibly close to one another, which is great news and a positive step forward for us after Monaco. Today was a bit of a missed opportunity, primarily because Lando was incredibly unlucky with the Red Flag. He was on a very strong first lap just 250 meters from the finish line, which forced him to be cautious on his final attempt to ensure we got a time on the board. For Oscar, the margins were razor-thin, just a tenth of a second separated P3 from P7 today. Looking ahead to tomorrow, we are optimistic. The Grand Prix will be heavily dictated by strategy, race pace, and tyre management. While we know we still have work to do from a technical standpoint to fully optimise our tyre exploitation over a race distance, our qualifying and race pace are closely matched this year. We are definitely in the game and looking forward to an exciting fight down into Turn 1."

Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team

George Russell (1st, 1:14.679): "I had a big reset heading into this weekend and every lap since the beginning of the weekend, we've been in the top two positions. That is what I'm most happy about after such a tough run of results recently for various different reasons. I've really felt back in the groove here in Barcelona and comfortable in the car. I'm really grateful to the team and for everyone that has stood by me in recent weeks. Hopefully today shows exactly what I am capable of. Of course we are pleased with pole position, but the points are scored tomorrow. The race start will be important, but it will be a long race with high tyre degradation. There will be a lot of opportunities across the Grand Prix and strategy will be interesting. Hopefully we can keep our noses clean, make sure we get to the flag, and be in a position to fight for victory."

Andrea Kimi Antonelli (3rd, 1:14.998): "t has been a more difficult weekend on my side so far compared to recent races. I've not felt as one with the car here in Barcelona. That is partly because of the conditions here where it is not only very hot, but the track is punishing on the tyres too. I feel like I might have been pushing a bit too much in qualifying and in the final sector, I could feel the lap time slipping away. Our long run in FP2 was strong so hopefully we can carry that pace into tomorrow. P3 is not a bad position to be starting, and it will be a long race. It will be crucial to look after the tyres and maybe drive a little slower at times to go fast. It will be a strategically difficult race; we will do our best and trying to maximise the result."

Toto Wolff, Team Principal: "George has been the quickest driver all weekend. Ahead of the session, if you had asked me for a favourite for pole it would have been him. He's been on it all weekend, has reset and refocused after his recent bad luck and put together an accomplished performance so far this weekend. He will need to carry that on into the race tomorrow if he wants to fight for victory but he's in a good place this weekend and reminding everyone just how good he is. On Kimi's side, missing FP1 took some track time away from him but P3 is still a solid result. It is easy to forget he is only in his second year and has an incredibly fast team-mate alongside him. His long run pace in FP2 was competitive so I am sure he will be looking forward to tomorrow. It will be a long race tomorrow with high tyre degradation. Whilst we want to be leading the way into turn one, we know the Grand Prix can't be won there but can be lost. We will need to look after the tyres well, hopefully have good pace, and see what we are racing for come the closing stages."

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director: "Well done to George and the team for another well-deserved pole. The car has been reasonably solid all weekend. From our running in practice, we'd expected McLaren to be the closest competitors however, from the early stages of the session it was clear that we had a fight on our hands with Ferrari. Our run through the sessions was pretty straightforward. We got caught by the red flag in Q3 which gave us a few options for how to use the remaining eight or so minutes. We decided to reuse the tyres and carry the fuel for two attempts giving both cars a banker lap, which in George's case was good enough for provisional pole. The final runs were clean; P1 and P3 is not a bad place to start tomorrow. Our long runs looked competitive and we're expecting hot conditions so hopefully we can convert this qualifying into a strong race result tomorrow."

Oracle Red Bull Racing

Max Verstappen (5th, 1:15.021): "Yesterday I didn't think I would be in the fight, so this is an improvement and much more promising. We were quick the whole session, especially in sector one. Unfortunately, in the final sector on my last lap it just didn't really come together. I was sliding a lot more than I would have liked and didn't have much grip and we need to understand why that happened. Otherwise, I think P3 would have been on the cards which, looking at our weekend so far, would have been a really good result. We were still close to P3 and three and a half tenths to Pole so that is good to see. Yesterday I didn't think I would be in the fight, so this is an improvement and much more promising. All in all, it was a good Qualifying and the car felt better today. This weekend has been tough on everyone's tyres and tomorrow it will be critical to have the right strategy."

Isack Hadjar (6th, 1:15.077): "I'm looking forward to it as there will be a lot of strategy with pit stops and tyre degradation because of the tough track temperatures. We made good progress in Qualifying compared to all the Free Practice sessions. Even I'm surprised seeing the gap to the top three, so it's definitely encouraging to see. I feel like I did a decent job out there today. I messed up my sector one in Q3 by sending it too hard, so I'm a bit disappointed with that, but the rest was really good. Tomorrow should be a fun race. I'm looking forward to it as there will be a strategy with a lot of pit stops and tyre degradation because of the tough track temperatures. It'll be a big Team effort, but we are known for good strategy, so let's see what we can do."

Laurent Mekies, Team Principal: "We can say that all the hard work from everyone at the factory and at the race track is slowly but surely paying off. As a Team, we are never going to be happy with P5 and P6. But, it's fair to say we expected a bit of a reality check here in Barcelona because of the nature of the track, with its long straight and high speed corners. We know we are a bit weaker on this type of layout, certainly when compared to Monaco. Throughout all three practice sessions, we worked very hard to try and put the car in a better place. In fact, the gap to Pole, three and a half tenths, is probably the smallest we have seen so far this season on this type of track. We have yet to fully solve our limitations but we can say that all the hard work from everyone at the factory and at the race track is slowly but surely paying off. The dominant factor in the race will be the extreme heat leading to multiple pit stops, so there will be many cars in the fight for the podium positions and we will push hard to try and join the battle."

Scuderia Ferrari HP

Lewis Hamilton (2nd, 1:14.743): "I'm really pleased with today's result. Starting on the front row in Barcelona is a great outcome, especially after a difficult start to the weekend. I wasn't fully comfortable with the balance and struggled to get the tyres in the right window, even this morning, I didn't have the feeling in the car I wanted. After FP3 we made some changes, reset, and took a step forward when it mattered. From Q1 onwards I found the confidence to put the laps together. The team did a great job and the upgrades are working as intended, so a big thank you to everyone in Maranello. There's still a race to run and it won't be easy, but I'll give everything. Hopefully we can fight the Mercedes and stay at the front. I love this circuit and I'm excited to see what we can do."

Charles Leclerc (10th, No Time): "I tried to carry some more speed into Turn 4, but then I went onto the dirty side of the track and lost the rear. There's not much more to say, it was a driving error. I think we can do well tomorrow. The upgrade was a good step forward and I will push to make up as many positions as possible and bring home a positive result for the team."

Frédéric Vasseur, Team Principal: "After this qualifying, we have mixed feelings in the garage. There are definitely some positives: there was a huge push from everyone to bring this major upgrade package to Barcelona. It is paying off as the pace is clearly there which is an important factor. Of course we are disappointed for Charles as we could have secured a much better team outcome. He felt he had what he needed to take pole and he had been on the pace in all the sessions. He just pushed a little too hard. But it is what it is, and tomorrow's race will be a long one and with the likelihood of tyre degradation being a factor, Charles can fight back. As for Lewis, he has been getting stronger all season and he arrived here in Barcelona with a lot of confidence. He knew we had the updates and he built up his pace over all the sessions. Tomorrow in the race we can play our cards to bring home a strong team result."

Atlassian Williams F1 Team

Carlos Sainz (16th, 1:17.827): "We maximised everything we had today and reached our target of getting into Q2, which is an honest reflection of where we are at this track. We used all our new tyres in Q1 which left us with not much more to extract in Q2, so improving P16 was not possible. We'll be going into tomorrow with a fresh mindset as we know anything can happen here. On pure pace, points aren't on the table, but this track is hard on everyone's machinery and strategy can make a big difference. We'll be ready to take any opportunity that comes. It's been a tricky weekend so far, but feeling the support of the Spanish fans has been incredible. I'll give them everything I have tomorrow."

Alexander Albon (18th, 1:17.424): "It's been a difficult weekend, more so than it should have been. The balance has felt completely disconnected - we were sliding a lot, fighting both axles, and every time I went into a corner it felt different. There was no rhythm and no real consistency in laps to build on, which is disappointing because we knew this track would be a challenge, but not fully to this extent. Carlos managed to find a bit more than I did in qualifying, so we'll look at that data tonight and try to understand what was going wrong. On pure pace, points aren't really on the table tomorrow, but there is high tyre deg here so there will be plenty of pit stops and a lot of different strategies in play."

James Vowles, Team Principal: "We knew this would be a difficult weekend coming here, and unfortunately that has proven to be the case. We haven't been good in Barcelona for the last few years, and despite large changes to the regulations that remains the case, so we need to dig deeper to understand the issues. We know the car is still not on the weight limit, and in these very warm temperatures that has an extraordinarily large impact on the performance, but that's not all of it and over the next few weeks and months we need to find all of it because it will impact us at other circuits. Well done to both Alex and Carlos for doing their utmost with the package we have here today. We have sacrificed qualifying for the race and kept a strong allocation of tyres, so let's see what opportunities arise."

Visa Cash App Racing Bulls Formula One Team

Liam Lawson (8th, 1:16.542):

Arvid Lindblad (11th, 1:15.840):

Alan Permane, Team Principal:

Tim Goss, Chief Technical Officer:

Guillaume Dezoteux, Head of Vehicle Performance:

Guillaume Cattelani, Deputy Technical Director - Performance:

Mattia Spini, Chief Race Engineer:

Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team

Lance Stroll (21st, 1:18.758): "We're still suffering from drivability issues here in Barcelona. We're down on downforce, which is especially tough around this track, and we don't have the power we need. We'll see what tomorrow brings."

Fernando Alonso (22nd, 1:18.815): "There are no surprises that we qualified at the back as we know this is our level of car performance right now. We had downshifting issues and it was very difficult to drive the car in each Qualifying lap. It's always special to drive in front of the Spanish fans though and thanks to them for their amazing support over the weekend."

Mike Krack: "We knew coming into the weekend that this track would expose our true pace, and that is reflected in our qualifying result. Both drivers and the team gave it everything today, but we have to accept that this is our current position and do what we can in tomorrow's race."

Shintaro Orihara, Trackside General Manager and Chief Engineer:

TGR Haas F1 Team

Oliver Bearman (15th, 1:16.389): "It's been an incredibly tough weekend. I felt like we made progress between FP1 and FP2, but overnight we've taken a step back and FP3 wasn't good – this morning was incredibly tough. We reverted back to a known baseline and honestly I don't think we could've done more today. I was happy with my lap in Q1 where we were a bit more competitive relative to the others, but they only used one set of tires, some two, whereas we used three. In Q2 everything was a bit more equalized. I'm quite positive for tomorrow though as we had good race pace yesterday and I think in the race we can be more competitive."

Esteban Ocon (17th, 1:17.073): "Today was supposed to be much better than what we achieved. We had a deployment issue on the second run which put us on the back foot as we were actually fast on the first. On the third run when you get the references that you're faster in some straights and slower in others, it's not going to go super well as you can't really optimize the last lap. Even though we did a good job with the car, it's a shame we couldn't get more. Anything is possible tomorrow though, it's going to be a long race and there will be a lot of pit stops, so we'll see what we can do."

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: "It's been a pretty tough day. I think on Ollie's side of the garage we managed to come back from the issue in FP3 where the car wasn't very good. Some of it we understand, some we don't, so that's an issue. From FP3 to qualifying both cars were better, which is good, but the bad thing is that the drivers now had a new reference to learn. Everyone knows that these tires are just a one lap tire, which is why we did three runs in Q1. Esteban in his Q1 run had the exact same issue as he did in FP3 in terms of out lap procedure where he didn't get the energy, so as a team, it's not good enough. We shouldn't be having deployment issues on Saturday, we can have it in FP1 but by the end of FP2 everything should've been sorted. That's why in his second run in Q1 Esteban had no reference time. Ollie did a very good job considering everything. His second run in Q2 was a very good lap, but unfortunately, as you can see, the car isn't fast enough. We got the best out of what we could in qualifying, but I don't think we got the best out of the package. We've got lots to review to make sure we get the most out of every session."

BWT Alpine Formula One Team

Franco Colapinto (13th, 1:16.191): "It was another tricky day today and not the outcome or result we wanted. We have made some small improvements since yesterday, but not as big of a step as we would have hoped for from Friday to Saturday, or what we have shown at previous events. I'm not feeling that comfortable in the car and it's sliding a lot, which makes it unpredictable and difficult to drive, especially when pushing on a lap in Qualifying. It's not through lack of trying; we're working really hard as a group to try and understand how to fix it. We tried and tested many things, but it didn't significantly improve to enable us to fight for Q3. We were hoping to fight closer to the top 10 this weekend and we were some way off. Let's see what tomorrow brings and with the heat and degradation there might be some variation in strategy, and we will do our best to fight for points."

Pierre Gasly (14th, 1:16.261): "It's been a difficult day and we seem to be struggling at this track for some reason. I'm sure there was a bit more in it today, but Q3 was definitely too far out of reach for us. We are trying to understand a few things as I've not been comfortable in the car all weekend. I can't attack on braking and I'm struggling to have any confidence, with the car moving around quite a lot. We tried a few things overnight, including a chassis change, and we're still not finding the answers we want, so there is definitely a lot more work ahead of us. We are likely to see quite high tyre degradation tomorrow, so it will probably be a tough race for everyone We'll see what we can do and try to recover some positions."

Steve Nielsen, Managing Director: "We are certainly not satisfied after today's result where we have finished Qualifying with both cars unusually quite far off Q3. For some reason we are facing more difficulties than usual at this track and we have a lot of work to do in order to understand why that is. We changed chassis overnight with Pierre as we decided to change a number of components on his car in a bid to tackle some questions we flagged in our data. By the looks of it, that hasn't provided many new answers or sufficient improvement. Yesterday's high fuel runs were tough for most teams with the high track temperatures bringing significant tyre degradation and it is likely we will see more pit-stops than usual in tomorrow's race, maybe even a three-stopper for some. There will be a mix of strategies up and down the grid, potential opportunities to seize and we'll do our best to bring both cars towards the top ten and into the points."

Audi Revolut F1 Team

Nico Hulkenberg (9th, 1:16.657):

Gabriel Bortoleto (12th, 1:16.001):

Mattia Binotto, Team Chief:

Allan McNish, Racing Director:

James Key, Technical Director:

Cadillac Formula 1 Team

Sergio Perez (19th, 1:17.545): "We focused on the race from the start of the weekend, so Qualifying was always going to involve some compromises. Even so, I think we maximized our potential today and ended up closer than we expected, which is encouraging. Tire strategy and tire degradation are likely to be crucial factors tomorrow, especially on a track like this, and we've worked hard to put ourselves in the best possible position. We've done everything we can to prepare for the race, and now it's about making the most of every opportunity, executing well, and extracting the maximum from the package."

Valtteri Bottas (20th, 1:17.757): "We had a positive Qualifying considering my FP3 was quite compromised. As a team, we were able to find and fix the issue I faced. I had to revert to some older parts due to the damage sustained in Free Practice, but I think we made the most out of it given the circumstances. Everyone in the garage did a great job getting the car ready in time. It seems like we're closer to Williams than before and moving further ahead of Aston, but there's still improvements to be made. Tomorrow's race will be focused on managing tire degradation and overheating. It's most likely at least two stops for people, so that can create opportunities."

Graeme Lowdon, Team Chief: "We come away from today with another positive Qualifying under our belts at a more demanding circuit than what we've previously faced. Our gap to the midfield is getting progressively closer with Checo just over tenth behind one of the Williams, showing the efforts we're going to as a team. Valtteri's running was hindered in FP3 due to an issue that we were able to trace and rectify ahead of Qualifying. The team did a good job to turn his car around in time for the session. Looking ahead to tomorrow, we know the rising temperatures will be a factor for everyone with tire degradation playing a big part. We'll see what the race brings and aim to capitalize on any opportunities that may present themselves."