Berman: The car allowed us to enter the final session

      In qualifying for the sprint, Oliver Berman beat his teammate, advanced to the second session and clocked 12th on the difficult Shanghai track, where he is competing for the first time. Esteban Ocon, his more experienced Haas F1 teammate, dropped out of the competition after the first part of qualifying. Nevertheless, Ayo Komatsu, the team leader, is happy that things are going better than they were a week ago in Melbourne.

      Oliver Berman (12th): "The car made a good impression today, I'm happy. Already in practice, I knew from the very first lap that we would be able to do better this weekend than in Melbourne.

      I immediately felt comfortable driving – it's always nice if the weekend starts with that. We managed to show a normal pace today, although I'm still adapting to this track with its long turns, and it's not easy to find the right approach to them in such a short time.

      Of course, we have to try to add more, especially since I think the car allowed us to qualify for the final today."

      Esteban Ocon (18th): "We immediately dropped out of the fight, and this, of course, is frustrating. However, there are also positive aspects, because Oliver managed to get into the next session, and it looks like we already have more chances to compete for better results than we had in Melbourne.

      I'm glad that the team definitely managed to improve, and if we talk about me, we still need to analyze what exactly went wrong in the first session."

      Ayo Komatsu, Team Principal: "I am happy for everyone in our team, as we have made progress since Melbourne, where our weekend was incredibly difficult. That's why I'm very pleased with how everyone worked today, working together and solving problems right away.

      During the training session, the team clearly completed the program, this applies to both cars. To be honest, we continue to learn with every race that our riders spend on the track. Oliver did a good job, and today he didn't make a single mistake, doing everything right in the first two qualifying sessions.

      In the case of Esteban, we have doubts that his car was in the optimal configuration, and now we are dealing with this. However, in any case, he provided the team with useful information, so the whole day was positive."