Despite his crash on Friday, George Russell managed to bounce back on Saturday to secure pole position for the 16th running of the Singapore Grand Prix. F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo delivers drivers' reactions.

Mercedes

"It’s been a challenging weekend so far and I’ve had to build my confidence with the car. Come the end of Q2 though, I felt that I was in a good place and had more lap time in my pocket. I knew I had the car beneath me, and I was able to deliver with both efforts in Q3. It’s a good reminder that a setback on Friday doesn’t need to impact the rest of the weekend.

"Tomorrow won’t be easy but we’re starting from the best possible position. I will be focusing on my race and hopefully we can fight for a good result. We’ve not had a good look at our long run pace and in recent races Max (Verstappen) has been the man to beat, plus we know that the McLarens are strong in races where tyre management is key. Let’s see what we can do."

Kimi Antonelli, 4th, 1:29.537
"I am slightly disappointed to end our day in P4. I had a good FP3 and put together strong laps in both Q1 and Q2. It didn’t quite come together in Q3 sadly as I pushed a little too hard on both laps. I left a good chunk of lap time on the table and that is frustrating.

"It is a shame as I think we had a real shot at pole position but at least the front row. I’m pleased that I’ve managed to get up to speed quickly at a track that I’ve never driven before but there was definitely more there than our final result.

"There are some unknowns heading into the race. Not many cars have managed to get a representative long run completed and we know how critical that pace, and tyre management, will be for tomorrow’s Grand Prix. Starting P4, we have the opportunity to fight for the podium if we do have good race pace and hopefully we can bring home a good result."

Red Bull

“Overall it has been a very good Qualifying for us on this track which has not always been the kindest to us. Second is a really good result for us and I am very happy with the overall result and that we are on the front row. It could have been super close; George was very fast and we were fighting for Pole but what happened in the final sector was unfortunate and basically cost me the lap.

"In general, I think we can be pleased with the result so far and we have done a really good job with the set-up of the car. Normally on high downforce tracks we aren’t as good so this is a great result for us.

"The car has been in a better window and we have been good with the tyres and have been very solid all weekend. Hopefully the car has good race pace tomorrow, it is a long race around here and we will do our best and get as many points as we can.”

“Quali today was not my session, I really struggled with the grip overall and it didn’t improve much from Q1 to Q2. I actually felt like the grip was worse today in comparison to FP1 and FP2 yesterday where I didn’t really feel it, it’s a shame as I don’t think it should be this difficult. On the positive side our pace is definitely better than it was before Baku so there is improvement there at least.

"My confidence is still there but I would like some more consistency from the car, I just felt like the tyres never really switched on today. Tomorrow is new day and although it is a shame that I have to start quite far back, I am hopeful that we can score points, that is at least my aim."

McLaren

"I wanted more and thought we could have achieved more as we headed into Qualifying, but ultimately we didn't have the pace to challenge for pole. As a result, I am happy with where we have ended up. It has been a solid weekend, and I think we've built up to it nicely. It was a clean session, so not much more we could have asked for. Let's see what we can do tomorrow."

"Not a great day. I just wasn't able to drive at the limit of where I needed to be. Some things for us to work on, but hopefully we can make some progress tomorrow."

Ferrari

"It was a really tough qualifying, which unfortunately seems to match what we have seen since Friday. I found it hard to push the car to the limit and on a street circuit this makes it even more of a struggle to put everything together, especially over a qualifying lap.

"Tonight we will analyse all the data carefully to understand what we can do for the race, to try and bring home the best possible result on a track where overtaking is very difficult."

"There was potential in the car today, but the session didn’t run smoothly for us and we just didn’t have the pace when it counted. It’s disappointing not to be further up because the balance has felt good for most of the weekend. We struggled to get the tyres into the right window towards the end and that limited what we could do.

"Like most teams, we also didn’t get any long-run running in, so we’ll be going into the race with less information than we’d like. There’s more in the package than we showed today, and while overtaking here isn’t straightforward, it’s a long race and the target is to move forward."

Racing Bulls

"It was frustrating out there today. It’s nice that we finished again in Q3, but at the same time, we wasted the potential that was there. It was also the first time we made it to Q3 saving two new sets of Softs. I was pushing hard during my last lap in Qualifying and I felt like I was going for a special lap, but unfortunately, I made a mistake in turn 8, so I can only be annoyed at myself as the car worked really well.

"Looking at tomorrow, we’ll be starting P8 which sadly is on the dirty side of the grid. There are really fast cars ahead of us and overtaking is quite difficult on this track, but we’ll try our best to fight and bring home some points.”

"The team have done an amazing job to get the car ready in time for Qualifying, I can't thank them enough. I made it very difficult for myself by missing laps across two practices, however through Qualifying things were looking okay. I drove slower on the new tyre than I did on the used at the end, so it's something we'll need to look into.

"The car has felt fast, but it will be pretty tough to overtake tomorrow, so I'll continue to work super hard to pull everything together for the race.”

Haas

“The car definitely had performance and the possibility to get into Q2 and Q3. It’s disappointing to have these issues – one with my belt which meant I couldn’t brake as it got stuck, and a yellow flag where I lost three tenths. You need to be able to nail those two laps, and we don’t seem to be able to catch a break currently. We’ll give it our best tomorrow to make it happen, as the car had great pace yesterday.”

“It’s nice to be back inside the top 10, it feels like a long time coming. We’ve had a few decent qualifying sessions that didn’t quite materialise, so this one is really nice, as so far as we’ve put together a good weekend.

"Qualifying was good, I had confidence with it, and it’s tight out there, so the lap I put together didn’t have a lot left in it. The margins are incredibly tight, and I hope we can consolidate some points from there tomorrow.”

Aston Martin

"I was happy with the lap in Q3 and it was good we made it into the top ten, but we didn't have the performance to do much more than that. We made some changes between sessions but overall, the car proved to be quite difficult to drive in FP3 and Qualifying. We are also starting on the dirty side of the grid, but we'll see what happens tomorrow and hopefully battle for the points."

"Seems like one of those days where putting clean laps together felt difficult to achieve. I pushed on the second run in Qualifying and unfortunately locked up the front in sector three where I lost too much time. We will start from P17 tomorrow and see what we can do. The car has been feeling tricky to handle here all weekend so it could be a long and tough race for us."

Kick Sauber

“I’m quite happy with today’s qualifying. My laps were tidy and showed good progression throughout. Starting from P11 isn’t a bad place, and we’ve got an extra set of soft tyres for tomorrow.

"With everyone going into the race a bit less prepared after yesterday’s red flags, when nobody was really able to perform proper long runs, there might be some surprises. As always, strategy will depend on how things unfold, but we’ll be pushing hard to make the most of it.”

“It’s a real shame that we could not proceed to Q2, when we had the potential to easily progress. I was on a very good lap, good enough to make it through, when I had to lift for a yellow flag [for Pierre Gasly’s stricken car]. Of course, you need to back off for safety reasons, but that costs you a few tenths straight away.

"Unfortunately, that meant the lap was gone, and we missed out by a very small margin. It’s disappointing, especially because we felt much better today than yesterday — FP3 was very positive, and I really believed we had the potential to do a good job in qualifying. But that’s racing; sometimes you’re the unlucky one who catches the flag.”

Alpine

“There is not much to say today as we did not manage to complete our final push lap with the stoppage on track at Turn 11. We had a suspected oil protection cut, which the team will investigate and understand. It is frustrating for all of us that we did not have the chance to finish the lap.

"It would have been tough to progress but probably close as it always is in Q1. It is a difficult one for all of us at the moment but we just have to push through it and move on to tomorrow. We will give it our best as we always do and see if we can give ourselves a chance in the race.”

“It's obviously not the result we wanted to be out in Q1, but there are definitely some positives to take with how the car felt and how, as a team, we have been able to build the performance session by session. The car felt in a much better window, the best it has felt all weekend, and we were able to push and lean on the car more.

"So, in that sense we need to carry that feeling forward into the race tomorrow. I do feel we could have got more out of today and the timesheets are not necessarily reflective of the improvements we've made so far this weekend. Maybe we could have been a bit higher up on the grid with a better final run in Q1 without a couple of cars in the wrong place, which might have impacted some car performance.

"This is a long race and can sometimes be a race of attrition with overtaking also quite difficult, so we need to look into how we make the most from the strategy and try our best to make progress from our starting position.”