Esteban Ocon made his first Q3 appearance on Saturday during qualifying for the Russian Grand Prix and although he made some "small mistakes" on his final lap which cost him a couple of places, he was happy with his first top 10 performance.
The Force India driver qualified as the slowest Q3 runner, but was less than a tenth of a second behind team-mate Sergio Perez and just three-tenths off sixth-placed Felipe Massa.
The Frenchman believes he could have been higher up the grid had it not been for some minor errors during his final flying lap, but overall was pleased to get through to Q3 for the first time in his Formula 1 career.
"It’s the first Q3 appearance of my career and I’m pretty happy with our performance today," he said. "The team has done an awesome job to improve the car during each session and I felt very comfortable by the time we started qualifying.
"I made a few small mistakes on my Q3 lap so I’m a little bit frustrated because there was the opportunity to be even higher up the grid."
Ocon is confident of continuing his points run which has so far seen him score a point in each of the opening three races.
"If I can make a clean start in the race, there is all to play for tomorrow. It’s important that I make the most of my best qualifying position in Formula 1 to score some more points."
Deputy team boss Bob Fernley says the team met their target of getting two cars inside the top ten and also believes they have a chance to score some solid points to further cement their position in the standings.
"The top ten was our target today and it’s encouraging to see both Force Indias make Q3 for the first time this year," he said. "The team has done an excellent job over the last few days to extract more and more performance from the car and today’s results show the progress we have made.
"The Q3 laps of both drivers were clean and tidy, but they both felt there was a bit more speed in the car and that they had the potential to be even higher up the grid.
"Even so, locking out the fifth row of the grid represents our best qualifying performance of the year and gives us every chance to score solid points tomorrow."
