Carlos Sainz: "A frustrating situation one more time in quali. I don't have much to say. The session was going well, I was lapping in the 1m41.9s - 1m42.0s in Q1, which would have got us easily from Q2 into Q3. The Haas made a mistake in front of me and that meant yellow flags in Turn Two ruined my last attempt. It's not the best way to finish qualifying today.

"Right now I'm far from happy, but tomorrow I'll be more positive and 100 per cent focussed on the race. I have a free choice of tyre, and I start from P10 instead of P11 - but the fact is I'm not happy at all."

Lando Norris: "It was obviously a decent quali - in the end - in terms of the result. I managed to stay out of danger, didn't make any silly mistakes and capitalised a bit on others who did. It was having that clean qualifying that made it pretty good for us.

"It could maybe have gone a little better if I'd nailed the lap but I'm still happy with seventh. I think we maximised today overall and I'm pretty pleased with how it's gone. It's going to be a long one tomorrow though. The starting position doesn't decide the whole race here like it does at some other tracks."

Gil de Ferran, Sporting Director: "I guess it's a good sign when you are mildly frustrated after the results we had today. In general, this is a very difficult session to manage given the red flags and the importance of track position in order to achieve your maximum potential.

"Carlos was really unfortunate to come across a yellow flag on what would have been his ‘qualifying lap.' On the positive side, he's in a good grid position and with free choice of tyres for tomorrow, which may end up being a very important factor for the race. Lando did an absolutely brilliant job improving every time and put himself in a very deserving P7.

"Tomorrow is another day, as was underlined by today's session. I'm sure we'll again have to contend with many unpredictable situations, which unquestionably will make our job on the pit-wall very complex as well as for the drivers in the cockpit. At the same time, I'm sure it will provide a very exciting race for the fans."

Check out our Saturday gallery from Baku, here.