James Vowles, Team Principal: "That was all the car had in it today. Well done to Carlos, who was able to put us through to Q2.

"We're making small steps every week, which is what's important right now, and we will continue to do so. There's a long road ahead of us, but I'm confident in our programme for the five-week break and the remainder of the year to put us back into a sensible position against our competitors. We know we don't have the car underneath us that we want today, but we'll still give everything tomorrow and fight for points if they become available to us."

Carlos Sainz: "Getting into Q2 was our best case scenario and we achieved it so I am happy with that. As a team we did everything we could and my laps were solid. We made some progress compared to China but at the same time we need to make sure we keep adding performance. P16 isn't where we want to be. I really enjoy driving around Suzuka and I’ll do my absolute best to maximise tomorrow’s race and see where we finish."

Alex Albon: "Today was frustrating because the car feels like it's behaving well and I felt the most in tune with the car this year so far and the rhythm was good. We've fixed some issues in the car from Melbourne and China but there's a separate one that we're being a little bit hampered by. It's nothing we can't fix, but as a team we need to understand where it's coming from. I'm happy with my driving and we're good in the corners so we'll have a look at the data overnight and see where we can look to gain a little performance."

Check out our Saturday gallery from Suzuka here.