Force India delighted with both cars reaching Q3

Saturday was a positive day for Force India, thanks to both Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon making it through to the final round of qualifying for the Russian Grand Prix in Sochi.

"The top ten was our target today," said deputy team principal Bob Fernely. "It’s encouraging to see both Force Indias make Q3 for the first time this year.

"Locking out the fifth row of the grid represents our best qualifying performance of the year," he added. "It gives us every chance to score solid points tomorrow."

Perez narrowly pipped his junior team mate to ninth place by less than a tenth of a second. The pair will line up alongside each other on the grid for Sunday's race.

"It was not an ideal qualifying session for me," said Perez. "But in the end we got a good result and we can be pleased to be in Q3.

"I didn’t get the perfect lap. I feel I have left something on the table. When the margins are so close, a tenth of a second would have put us a couple of places further ahead.

"It was not easy to get the tyres in the right operating window and to keep them working for the whole lap," he elaborated. "Also, the track conditions changed a lot from yesterday and I think this affected everyone.

"The key for tomorrow’s race will be having a good start and a clean run into turn 2," he predicted. "It’s a tricky one. In the past there has been plenty of action there at the start.

"I am optimistic for the race, and I think we can aim to make up some positions from where we start."

Vettel and Raikkonen lock out Sochi front row

For Ocon, Sunday will be the first time in 13 races that the 20-year-old gets to start in the top ten.

"It’s the first Q3 appearance of my career and I’m pretty happy with our performance today," the French driver beamed.

"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," he added. "I’m a little bit frustrated because there was the opportunity to be even higher up the grid.

"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."

GALLERY: All the pictures from Saturday in Sochi

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.