STC Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

Driver Quotes - Saturday 19 April

Oscar Piastri "First of all, it's great to see Lando is okay. Overall, I am happy with the job we did today. Being so close to Pole is frustrating but we didn't have much more in it and Max did a great job. I think we can fight from where we are as our pace is good, so we're in a strong position to challenge for the win. I think it's going to be a tough but fun race."

Lando Norris "A disappointing end to Qualifying but I know what I have to do tomorrow. We have a good car, it's quick and I'll work with the engineers overnight to put a plan in place to work my way up the field. Thank you to the entire team for their hard work this evening, I'm ready to go again tomorrow to score some strong points."

Max Verstappen: "It is really nice but definitely unexpected to get pole today. The Team made some final adjustments going into Qualifying which allowed me to be a bit more comfortable in the car and attack the corners. Our progression in Qualifying was really nice: we tried to improve run by run and it felt good in the car and we made things a lot more comfortable. The tyres were overheating less which was positive, we found the right balance and when everything cooled down a bit, the car came alive at night. I'm really proud of the Team, after the red flag they stayed calm and chose the right strategy. I wasn't entirely sure what the right call was and then GP came on the radio and the Team were definitely right. It is always a Team effort, all the engineers helped with this and helped improve on particular corners. I knew what I had to do to beat the lap record but it's always extremely rewarding to put a good lap together here. Looking to tomorrow, it will be a bit more tricky as here you can pass if you have more pace. There are a few more DRS zones, so it will be difficult to keep everyone behind but we will give it everything that we have."

Yuki Tsunoda: "It was an okay Saturday to finish P8. Congrats to Max on pole, he did a great lap. My last push lap in Q3 was quite messy and I was expecting slightly more today. We are still learning and it feels like there's always something that happens when I push more, unpredictable things happen, and it's been quite difficult to put everything together for a clean lap. It's pretty frustrating when I can't put it all together in Q3 when it counts, but it is at least positive to be in Q3 again this weekend. Some of the difficulties are due to experience, it is only my third race with the Team but my confidence is building up in the car, I have to keep pushing and we want more. Hopefully we can be more consistent in the race tomorrow, our setup is more focused on the long run rather than the short run and I had more confidence in those laps. I will do my best to overtake and to finish with good points."

Charles Leclerc: I'm not pleased with P4. I am satisfied with my driving and I have understood how to maximise the car's potential, but unfortunately, this is the most we can extract from it at the moment. We just don't have enough grip to carry the kind of speed our competitors are carrying through certain corners, and we have to analyse that.

I don't expect any miracles tomorrow, but if we have a good start, a podium could be on the cards. I will give it everything to make that happen.

Lewis Hamilton: Considering how tough practice was, that was a decent recovery in quali. Obviously not where we want to be, but the car felt better out there, so we're moving in the right direction.

My lap in Q3 wasn't great, but you can overtake here, so the goal's to fight through and make up ground tomorrow.

George Russell: P3 is a great result for us this evening. If you had offered us third before the session, I think we would have taken it. Seeing how tight the field was at the end of Q3 though, you do begin to think about where we might have found that extra tenth to claim pole. Nevertheless, we should be pleased. It was a tough session with the red flag taking away our first lap. The only thing that mattered then was that final effort and I think we did a good job to deliver a solid starting position for tomorrow.

It is going to be a long race so we should be able to put our race pace to use. We looked competitive on Friday, even if Piastri in the McLaren looks to have an edge on the rest of the field and will be difficult to race. P3 gives us a chance to fight for the podium again and hopefully we can get on there for our fourth top three finish in the first five races of 2025.

Kimi Antonelli: That was a very intense Qualifying! The session as a whole went well, and I continued to build my speed. I had a big snap on my first lap in Q1 and had to burn a second set of new tyres to get through to Q2. That wasn't ideal but we still made it through to Q3 and, with the red flag, it all came down to the final effort anyway. I need to rewatch my lap to see exactly what happened, but I had a moment in the first sector that cost me a few tenths. That was a shame as the rest of the lap was strong and I think we could have taken P4.

I'm feeling more and more confident each and every weekend. This track is such a big test as you need lots of confidence and to get really close to the walls through the high-speed corners. Step-by-step, and the more experience I'm getting, I feel like I'm starting to put it all together with more consistency. Let's not get ahead of ourselves though and see what we can do tomorrow. It will be a long race and hopefully we can bring home some solid points for the team.

Lance Stroll: "Qualifying was our most competitive session this weekend so far. We made some small progress, but we just didn't have enough pace to get through to Q2, although the cut-off time was very tight. We did some set-up changes following the practice sessions yesterday and progressed a little bit, but the car is not easy to drive in the tricky conditions here and we still have plenty of areas to work on and improve. Tomorrow will be all about taking opportunities; we will see how it goes."

Fernando Alonso: "Jeddah is one of my favourite circuits and I think I achieved the maximum from the car with P13 in Qualifying. We managed to progress into Q2, but we used up all of our new Softs to get there, so it was always going to be difficult to progress any further than that. We have struggled again for performance this weekend and it could be a challenging race for us, but anything can happen on a street circuit like this."

Pierre Gasly: "On the whole, it is positive that we made it back-to-back Q3 appearances after last weekend in Bahrain. Today there were certainly a few things we could have done better, which we will learn from for next time as I am sure we could have been higher than ninth place. The whole team has done a great job and the package is good at the moment. We have put ourselves in a position to fight for points tomorrow, which, of course, is the target. We will need a clean race in a tight field. We know where and who our race is against with Carlos [Sainz] a few places ahead. That's our aim and I'm looking forward to it tomorrow night."

Jack Doohan: "It's not the end result we wanted in Qualifying, but, overall, I'm pleased with the steps we made today after a challenging Practice yesterday. We made good steps forward between Free Practice 3 to Qualifying. We were able to work through some things and find some improvements overnight and I immediately felt the positive impact in the first few laps of today where I was much more comfortable in the car compared to yesterday. The end result in Qualifying is not one we are happy with especially being so close to reaching Q2. We remain optimistic and we know overtaking opportunities are better here than other circuits and we will aim to take advantage of a few things like strategy with the ambition of progressing forwards to the points."

Esteban Ocon: "I lost a little bit of time in the first sector, but even if I remove that, we would've been out. We've struggled the whole way through this weekend, unfortunately. I think it's been a tough one and although we've improved a few things, we need to keep working to optimize what there is. I'm sure we'll get on top of the issues we're facing and get more consistency in terms of performance for the future."

Oliver Bearman : "I honestly don't think we had Q3 in us today. I was happy to get through Q1, it was a good lap I thought. It was a bit more difficult in Q2; I felt really good on the used tire but then jumping onto the new set, it's really difficult to get them into the correct window and unfortunately that was the case today - I didn't improve on my new tires. It's difficult to say about long runs, it was a messy day yesterday with red flag interruptions, but degradation is a little higher than last year. We've been decent on race trim this season though, so hopefully I have the pace delta I had last year and have a good race."