06/04/2024
NEWS STORY
Yuki Tsunoda: "I felt a little pressure coming into this weekend after our strong performance in Australia, but I'd say it's good pressure and I'm very happy I was able to get into Q3 in front of my family, friends and home crowd.
"The qualifying itself wasn't as easy as we expected, but overall, as a team we did a fantastic job. I'm continuing to learn how to maximise the car and its setup to extract the best out of it, and without everyone, the engineers and mechanics, on track and at the factory, supporting me, I wouldn't have achieved this result and I'm very appreciative of them all. Daniel also did a great job which means there's definitely potential to score points, maybe even more than one, so we'll do our best. The first step is done, and the second one is top 10 in the race tomorrow, which I haven't achieved here yet, but we'll put it together and try to have a perfect race!"
Daniel Ricciardo: "I have mixed emotions today. There's a bit of frustration but it's also encouraging to be so close to Q3 after a tricky start to the year. Considering that yesterday I had only a few laps, and they were in damp conditions, today's qualifying was a good session as we were very close to making it inside the top 10. I drove some laps this morning in FP3 and then worked hard to find those few tenths for quali. I'm pleased for us to be pretty much there, but it's not Q3. It's just frustrating to be knocked out by just half a tenth as it would have been nice to give it to the guys today. After yesterday, we certainly see some positives that are encouraging. For tomorrow, the race pace has been alright, and I'll start on the clean side of the grid. I really think points are possible, so I'll aim to be in the top 10 in Lap 1 as well as in Lap 53."
Alan Permane (Racing Director): "We're very happy of course, with Yuki in Q3 again. A fantastic effort by him, and with Daniel a few hundredths behind, I think we really maximised our package today. Well done to everyone, both in Italy and the UK, for bringing the first major upgrade this season. The new floor performed perfectly, and it has, no doubt, helped our performance. It's a good result for the team and we need to continue this good form into tomorrow, and make sure we're there to score as many points as possible."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Suzuka here.