Fernando Alonso: "It was a nice surprise tonight in Qualifying to finish sixth and a very good way to start the new season.

"We were cautious heading into the session, but we found ourselves competitive and in the end we were only a tenth away from the Ferraris in Q3. The car felt more connected this weekend and our fine tuning was a real positive. I think it will be very close tomorrow in the race and the fine margins between us all means how we manage everything will be key. Let's see what we can do, but I'm confident heading into the race."

Lance Stroll: "The AMR24 felt good in Qualifying - a reflection of the work we put in over testing to configure the set up. I had a strong flying lap in Q1 and was happy with my pace, but then got caught in some traffic at Turn 13 in my final Q2 run. That can be the difference between progressing [into Q3] or not when it's such a tight field and every tenth matters. Such a close pack should make for an interesting race tomorrow; I'll do my best to get a good start and we'll go from there."

Mike Krack, Team Principal: "A well-executed qualifying session sets us up nicely for a strong race where we can compete for strong points. Our Qualifying laps were clean and tidy, and we saw just how close all the teams are this year in terms of single-lap performance. You have to really get everything right in these circumstances because every tenth of a second matters. Our focus over the winter has been to close the gap to the front and the early indications are encouraging, but it's only the first Qualifying session of the year and we need to see how things unfold in the race. We will finally get the answers tomorrow on race performance: we've done our homework and have prepared well over the last couple of weeks, so let's see what we can do."

Check out our Friday gallery from Bahrain here.