Pierre Gasly: "I'm very happy with today's Qualifying performance, securing our second Q3 appearance of the weekend.

"I'm really pleased with the work we've done as a team, and we seem to be going in the right direction. From where we were last weekend, it gives me optimism for tomorrow's Grand Prix and also the coming races. We executed a good Qualifying session this afternoon and built-up speed every lap, whereas we had a trickier morning in the Sprint Race where we had a lot of tyre degradation. This is something we need to work on for tomorrow if we're to compete with the cars around us. The gaps in the race and Qualifying are very small and we're in the middle of a tight midfield pack, so every detail counts and we hope to have a competitive edge tomorrow and translate the progress we've made this weekend into more points for the team."

Franco Colapinto: "From yesterday and where we started the day in the Sprint Race, I feel much more positive with the car and the result in Qualifying. We couldn't change much overnight with parc fermé and we struggled in the Sprint with clipping and some graining. But we didn't give up, worked hard as a team and turned things around in the afternoon. There was a lot of things we didn't understand with the car yesterday and the work we did last night with the engineers and sitting also with Pierre translated into an improved result today. We changed a lot of things on the car, and we know where we're still lacking. When you're so close to getting into Q3, you're still slightly disappointed. I had some clipping out of the final corner and locked up in a few places, so the time was definitely there. We're close to the points, so let's hope for a good start and it's all to play for tomorrow."

Steve Nielsen, Managing Director: "We started the weekend in much better shape than we did in Melbourne and, as you can see with all the teams, we're learning about these new cars and new regulations at such a rapid rate. Pierre unfortunately couldn't capitalise on his strong Sprint Qualifying in the race, with both Pierre and Franco voicing that they were struggling with clipping and graining. So, for tomorrow's Grand Prix, we know there's still some work to be done to ensure we're more competitive on high fuel. We expected some of our rivals to close the gap today, so for Pierre to replicate his performance with a strong seventh place in Qualifying is very positive indeed. Franco also made a positive step from the Sprint to Qualifying and was unfortunate to miss out on Q3 by the finest of margins. He has been putting in the hours and working hard with the engineers and learning from Pierre which is fantastic to see. Knowing how the Sprint played out, we know there's work to be done overnight to put us in with a fighting chance of adding to our points tally tomorrow."

Check out our Saturday gallery from Shanghai here.