Esteban Gutierrez will start from inside the top ten in this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix, after making it through to the final round of qualifying for the first time since he joined Haas F1.

The Mexican driver was seventh fastest in Q2 and head of Max Verstappen and both Force India cars to comfortably put himself into the top ten at Monza.

“It was pushing the limit like crazy,” Gutierrez told Sky Sports F1 when asked about his second round effort. “I had a few moments during the lap, very few small moments, where everything is under control but over the limit! Just extracting the maximum from the tyres.

“I really loved that lap and also being able to know that I’ve extracted the maximum from the car and what a good car the team gave me – it was fantastic.

“It has been a great effort from the whole team during the weekend, it had a fantastic approach,” he told reports after the final round of qualifying concluded, in which he settled for tenth place on the grid.

“I think all the consistency we’ve had over the last few months has helped us to work on the small details that make the difference. Today we extracted the maximum from the car, getting into the top ten with the lap that we did in Q2 was a great deal.

“We are looking to consolidate this result for tomorrow’s race.”

Gutierrez’ best qualifying effort of the year comes at just the right point of the season, as the driver market starts to free up for next year’s race seats following the announcement that Felipe Massa is retiring form the sport.

“It’s an exciting moment! Everybody starts to have the rumours and things start to move around, so everything is underway – so I will be here in Formula One [in 2017],” he confirmed.

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