Saturday: Ricciardo places his Toro Rosso in the top 10

Daniel Ricciardo – 12th and 7th:

« It’s nice to be in Q3. It’s the first time since Bahrain last year that I’ve made it into the top 10, so almost an entire year. I clearly hope to have a good race tomorrow and I will give everything to take advantage of this seventh place on the grid. I think it will be an exciting race and today, you could see most of us waiting until the last moment in Q3 to go out because everyone wanted to save tires for tomorrow, given that the softs suffered a lot on long runs on Friday. This result is a real boost for the whole team, and for me as well, and I can’t wait for the lights to go out tomorrow! The guys have worked so hard at the factory and they have made the car faster, so kudos to everyone. »

Jean-Eric Vergne – 11th and 16th:

« It was disappointing, as I was in the rhythm since Friday, something didn’t seem right with my car this afternoon. However, I am confident we can fix it for tomorrow and when you see where my teammate qualified, it’s a positive sign for tomorrow because the car clearly works well. There will be many opportunities to do something in the race. The tire situation is quite complicated, and we will have to get the most out of them because having the right strategy will be a key factor tomorrow afternoon. What we can say is that the car has clearly improved compared to the first two races. »