Lewis Hamilton praised the progress Ferrari has made following his best qualifying of the season at the Austrian Grand Prix, while teammate Charles Leclerc is aiming to push McLaren for an unlikely race win.
Hamilton, having achieved a best grid slot of fifth coming into the weekend, qualified fourth on Saturday, with Leclerc on the front row in second for the third time this year.
Key to Ferrari's improvement was a new upgraded floor on the car, and while Oscar Piastri may have nicked second place if able to complete his final lap in Q3, both Hamilton and Leclerc were effusive of their team's efforts on and off the track.
"It's a fantastic result," Hamilton said. "The team worked really hard back in the factory to bring us a new floor this weekend.
"Considering yesterday we were a lot further off, for us to be a lot closer and on the second row, I think that's fantastic, and for Charles being on the front row. I think ultimately my last lap wasn't perfect and if I'd finished it I'd have been second, so there's lots of positives.
"It's also been the best day operationally, particularly through qualifying, just timings, the information we're getting in terms of traffic and positions on track. It was the best, and proper world class, and that's what we're working towards."
Leclerc, who qualified half a second behind pole-sitter Lando Norris, added: "The upgrades definitely helped us today, how much it's difficult to know. But especially when you see how fine the margins are, it definitely helped us. So on that, we should be proud of the work done. Apart from that, I think we did a great job.
"[Fight for victory?] I'll give it all. We'll see, I don't have the answer right now. The gap is very big today but tomorrow with tyre management, I think we have a strong car. Will it be as good as the McLaren? I don't know. I'll be doing everything to make the McLarens life as tough as possible."
Hamilton added to reporters that he felt he was "edging closer in terms of performance" to Leclerc, another factor in the seven-time world champion's "really positive" day.
On ending his podium drought in red, Hamilton then stated: "It feels like that win, that 900-odd days thing, it feels like that sort of thing, but hopefully it won't take 900 days.
"Every race I've been saying I can't wait to get that first podium. I'm not going to say that today, I'm just going to stay quiet and try and do a better job tomorrow!"
Ferrari's uptick in performance came amid mounting pressure, particularly on team boss Fred Vasseur.
"I think ultimately we continue to pull together and block out and protect each other, block out all the noise and just keep our heads down," Hamilton continued.
"It's an incredible team. I'm working with Fred and we're working to just put all the pieces of the puzzle in the right place. It's step by step. It can't be done in one go, we've just got to keep working on it. I'm really, really happy with the progress we are making."