“Obviously this year’s been tough so it’s really nice to be on pole position again and just have something to be happy about. The Michelin qualifying tyres worked really well this afternoon – I’ve never had so much grip – and it’s a big thanks to all the boys in my team because they’ve worked really hard all weekend.

We’ve improved by half a second in each session and as much as I’d like to say it was all down to me, really the team has made some good adjustments to the machine. The harder this year’s got the harder they’ve worked for me so I’m really happy to give them something to smile about.

We’ve still got to improve a lot on race tyres but we’re in a good position. The qualifying laps were pretty good and I improved by half a second from the first to the second which is what you’ve got to do if you want to get up front so I’m happy with how today has gone. Let’s hope we can keep it rolling tomorrow.”