Laurent Mekis: The main thing is that we have to earn points

      When Yuki Tsunoda returned to the Albert Park paddock after finishing 5th in qualifying at the Melbourne Circuit, the team greeted him with a standing ovation and thunderous applause.

      Of course, the Japanese driver has also had better qualifying results – the memories of Yuki starting from third position in Sao Paulo last year are still fresh in his mind, but then in Interlagos all the main events of the weekend took place on a rain-soaked track. Moreover, qualifying had to be postponed to Sunday due to too inclement weather, but that's another story.

      But it was dry in Melbourne on Saturday, and yet not everyone could find the right approach to a difficult city track. But Yuki and his team did well – suffice it to say that today he was faster than both Ferrari drivers, who performed clearly worse than their abilities.

      By the way, Tsunoda's new team-mate, Isaac Hajjar, also performed quite well, showing 11th place, i.e. the French debutant was ahead of Fernando Alonso, a two-time world champion, and lost only one position to Carlos Sainz, now a Williams racer.

      "The weekend is going well for us," Laurent Mekis, head of Racing Bulls, commented on Sky Sports. "The beginning of the season is always a special period, because we work all winter, spend two or three months at the base of the team, creating a new car, but we don't know for sure if it is effective enough.?

      Of course, even now we have not received all the answers. The track in Melbourne is quite specific, but we are glad that we had the speed, and the riders coped well with their tasks, and the team also did a great job helping them maximize the potential of VCARB 02.

      However, we are not saying that the 5th result corresponds to our real capabilities, because Yuki probably performed better than the car allowed, but it is absolutely certain that we intend to fight for points immediately behind the top four teams.  So, of course, a good start has been made.

      I repeat: we do not expect that the speed of the car will allow us to stay at such a high level, but we will continue to work hard, and today's result was proof of all the efforts that the team made during the off-season.

      However, the weather forecast for tomorrow is such that it is quite possible to foresee a chaotic development of events, because this is an urban highway, beginners start driving six cars, and the rain promises to be heavy. But the situation is the way it is, and right now we are trying to focus on the main thing: we have to earn points. If there aren't many of them, it means there aren't many. But together with Yuki and Isaac, we will do our best."