It was a case of so near, yet so far, for the Manor Marussia F1 Team in Melbourne today. After a Herculean effort to prepare its cars to go racing, in the end the team simply ran out of time to topple all the glitches that are part and parcel of debuting a car at the start of a new season.

Will Stevens: "It goes without saying that I'm disappointed that we ran out of time for qualifying. Disappointed not just for me, but for the whole team, because the effort this week has been tremendous. What matters most is that we're here, so we have to focus on that fact and look to the future. We knew it would be difficult, that we would experience some challenges and that is what happened, but we are better placed for the next few races and that in itself justifies the hard work over the past few days."

Roberto Merhi: "A tough way to start the season but we have worked together to try to overcome our problems and already I feel a big part of the team. They are like a family and it is nice to see the true spirit, even if we had hoped for more this weekend. Certainly we came here to go racing and it is difficult that we haven't been able to get the cars out but that leaves me feeling all the more determined to work hard with everybody to push for more in the coming races."

John Booth, Team Principal: "We have come such a long way in an incredibly short space of time, so to miss out on qualifying is of course very disappointing. One always has to look at the silver lining in these situations and ours is that we have identified, worked through and ironed out a number of very challenging issues in the field and that experience will stand us in good stead as we move forward from here. This is a team that has met and overcome many difficulties, both in the past few months and at other stages of our racing history. There are very good things ahead for us and that is where our focus lies. For now, well done to everyone in our team. We can all feel justifiably proud of our achievements so far."

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