Alfa Romeo driver Zhou Guanyu was jubilant after finishing today's qualifying session for the Hungarian GP in fifth place, his best grid spot so far in 32 Grand Prix starts.
His previous best qualifying was ninth place, which he managed at Silverstone and Monza last year. This year his highest start till now was from 11th place in Saudi Arabia.
But after a fallow spell for the team in recent races, the C43 looked reenergised today with both Zhou and his team mate Valtteri Bottas in fine form throughout qualifying - Zhou even topping the times at the end of Q1.
Having made it into the top ten pole shoot-out final round, Zhou put in a terrific final push lap to pip Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.
“I feel absolutely amazing!" beamed the Chinese racer. "Really happy. Big thanks to the team of course. To give me the car to be fighting for Q3 - and then coming back with a P5, that was definitely not expected.
“But we knew we had the pace this weekend and qualifying," he revealed. “Every lap had to be 100 per cent, a few mistakes of course with the track limits, but I was pushing on the limit.
"I was literally on the edge every lap. Q1, top of the table, really surprised, then I knew I had a chance," he enthused. When it mattered, we delivered, especially with the last lap in Q3. Really happy with the starting grid!"
Although the team didn't bring any new parts to Hungary, Zhou said that they had been focused on getting the most out of the package introduced at the British GP.
"We were not happy with the performance we extracted from the new package after Silverstone, but we all worked hard in order to further optimise it, and these results prove it.
"We were already looking quite strong yesterday. Having further analysed the data overnight, we found that extra push that allowed us to get through Q2 and Q3," he said. "Now all of our focus will go into keeping up with this performance tomorrow, when it matters."
Despite the pace shown by the team today, Zhou had to be cautious talking about his prospects for Sunday's race, admitting that a podium looked out of reach.
“I think we aim for, obviously, top ten," he said. "Let’s be realistic. I do feel we have a good package so far in both conditions, long and short fuels, but there’s definitely Red Bulls, Ferraris.
"They’ll have a little bit the upper hand on us long-term, so we need to execute as we have," adding that the key objective this week was to get their championship campaign back on track against their midfield rivals.
"If we can get top eight, it really puts us back in the championship, fighting with Williams and Haas. So it’s really important to get points.”
Bottas was equally pleased to make it into the final ten and secure seventh place on the grid, his best starting spot since last year's Mexican GP.
"I am really proud of the whole team today, and positively surprised about how good our performances have been. We saw that we had realistic chances to get into the top ten, but fifth and seventh went even beyond our expectations.
"We have been strong throughout the whole qualifying session, with all the compounds, and managed to extract the full potential from our cars.
"This track layout really suits our car and brings up the strength of the package," the Finn said. “Here is not an easy track to overtake, so we take the good track position. It’s going to help us to score some good points.”
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