Elated Schumacher daring to dream of first F1 points after Q2 appearance in Turkish GP qualifying

Haas driver Mick Schumacher couldn't hide his delight at having qualified 14th for the Turkish Grand Prix, with the Haas rookie recalling how much he enjoyed making the most of the tricky conditions at Istanbul Park on Saturday.

Schumacher made it out of Q1 in P14 with a stellar lap to ensure his first Q2 appearance since the French GP weekend – where he crashed out after securing his place – and thus took part in Q2 for the first time in his F1 career.

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He said: "Yes, it was definlitely great. Those tricky conditions were fun to drive, I just enjoyed it, and did what I did best – and that’s drive – so I think we as a team just took the right decisions at the right time. We have analysed it properly, we went through all the steps that we usually do, but we just seemed to have found the right set-up for the right conditions.

"It went well from FP1, very nice feeling on track, and with the car, so yes, just really happy," he added.

The German was eliminated in 14th place in Q2, as Carlos Sainz did not set a flying effort in that session because of his grid penalty. And Schumacher said he had a couple of tenths in the bank to the Williams of George Russell ahead, given he had to slow on his final flying lap for Lance Stroll, who had gone off at Turn 1.

"Yes, I mean those things happen," he said. "If you wait for the last lap those things can happen; I’m just really happy that we managed to get to drive and get to show our performance and I think maybe we even had a tenth or two in there to be closer to George."

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Starting 14th, where he began the Russian Grand Prix as others took grid penalties, Schumacher was asked where he could end up on Sunday – and whether he could score his first F1 points tomorrow.

He replied: "Hopefully we’ll be able to move forwards. To be able to be in the points, that’s the dream. As for whether that can be reality we have to wait and see, but definitely, I think we’ll analyse properly, we’ll see what we can do tomorrow – and we’ll just go from there."