Gabriel Bortoleto finished ninth – just outside the points – in the Sprint race and matched this result in qualifying for tomorrow's race – the first driver outside of the leading four teams on the grid.

Team-mate, Nico Hulkenberg, was short of luck in the Sprint, with an issue affecting the power unit sidelining him from the competition. The crew in the garage delivered a quick change of PU in time for qualifying, where Nico cleared Q1 and ultimately set the 13th fastest time of the session. The qualifying results put the team in a very valuable position and will enable both drivers to fight for a place in the points from the very start of the race.

Earlier in the day, F1 Academy driver, Emma Felbermayr, ran in the top positions for most of the Reverse Grid Race before a late five-second penalty relegated her to P13, outside the points. Emma will return to action tomorrow, starting from fourth on the grid in the feature race.

Allan McNish, Racing Director: "Overall, this has been a solid day in which we showed good pace and an ability to consistently fight at the front of the midfield. In the Sprint, Gabi had a clean run all the way through. He perhaps had one opportunity to overtake Gasly at the start, but Pierre was able to defend and from there Gabi stayed on his tail. Considering the Alpine started on a new medium and we were on a used medium, we can assess our pace was very good. Unfortunately, Nico had a power issue right at the beginning of the race, so we had to pit and try to rectify it, which we did, and he was able to go back out towards the end of the race. As a precaution, we decided to change the power unit ahead of qualifying and the race as a precaution. All in all, P9 was just outside the points, but it was a good performance from Gabi.

"When it came to qualifying, Gabi had a really strong run through every session and delivered a very nice lap to qualify 'best of the rest' in P9. He had a pretty big slide out of turn one at the beginning of Q1, but recovered extremely well to deliver a strong performance, not least a lap under pressure at the end of Q1. Nico was in the mix throughout as well but unfortunately didn't quite get everything together on his final run in Q2 and will line up 13th. However, our race pace is good, so I think we can definitely fight for points with both cars tomorrow."

Nico Hulkenberg (Car 27):

Sprint: NC

Fastest Lap: 1:17.706 (Lap 7)

Strategy: Start (Medium Used)

Q1: 1:13.188 (10 laps)

Q2: 13th / 1:12.797 (9 laps)

"It hasn't been the easiest weekend for us so far, and the power issue I suffered at the start of the Sprint meant I never really stood a chance there. Still, we managed to resolve the problem ahead of qualifying. I'm not unhappy with my lap, although on my final attempt I caught a bit of tailwind out of turn one, which made things difficult and cost me some lap time. Apart from that, it was a pretty clean lap. This is a track where rhythm and confidence are really important, and we haven't quite been able to find that consistently this weekend so far."

Gabriel Bortoleto (Car 5):

Sprint: 9th

Fastest Lap: 1:16.922 (Lap 5)

Strategy: Start (Medium Used)

Q1: 1:13.142 (10 laps)

Q2: 1:12.433 (6 laps)

Q3: 9th / 1:12.079 (6 laps)

"It was a tricky qualifying session, but also an amazing one. I struggled in Q1 and nearly got knocked out, but I kept my head down, put together the lap I needed, and made my way through and eventually into the top ten. In the end, P9 was the most we could do today, and I'm really happy we extracted the maximum from the car. Looking back at the Sprint, I was quite happy with my pace, although we would have needed something more to move further up. If we can get another good start tomorrow, we might have another chance to be in the mix for a good result."