Albert Park Circuit, Melbourne, Australia

Shintaro Orihara, Trackside General Manager and Chief Engineer: “Today in our first qualifying with the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team, we took a step in the right direction with Fernando’s car. We were able to see the progression from Friday to now, thanks to the sustained hard work from both parties at the track and at our respective factories. We continue to see signs in our data that the battery vibrations have decreased since Bahrain testing, and we will continue to work further on this.

“We unfortunately missed the third and final practice session this morning with Lance’s car. We had identified a power unit issue on the ICE side and, despite our best efforts, in conjunction with the team, the car wasn’t ready in time for qualifying.

“All attention has now turned to preparing the power units for tomorrow’s Australian Grand Prix, our first race event in this new and exciting era of F1.”