Ayumu

FirstPracticeSession

Best Lap - 1:26.121
Position - 17th
Laps completed - 24

“This was another amazing day for me. I enjoyed it very much and had a good feeling from the car, more than from my previous time driving a Formula 1 car. I hope the team was able to get some good data from the testing we were doing during the session. It was a little bit difficult to build up the pace with all the things we had to test but I was able to do a new tyre run towards the end. Overall, I’m happy with how everything went and it was a useful experience for my future.”

Liam

FirstPracticeSession

Best Lap - 1:25.563
Position - 12th
Laps completed - 27

SecondPracticeSession

Best Lap - 1:24.503
Position - 11th
Laps completed - 25

“The car is looking decent, we still have another practice session to go and then qualifying obviously, but we’re in a good place; we’re chipping away a bit, but then so is everybody else. Compared to last week we’re in a stronger position, we feel more confident coming here with the car. At the same time, we’re not exactly where we want to be yet, especially with Haas and Niko being 3rd in that session. We obviously need to bridge that gap, but it’s a strong start. I’m hoping for Q3 tomorrow, but honestly the midfield is so close right now, one tenth up and we’re P8 and one tenth back and we’re P16, it’s very very close, it’s probably going to be a bit of a fight this weekend.”

Yuki

SecondPracticeSession

Best Lap - 1:24.497
Position - Pos. 10th
Laps completed - 28

“It was a pretty good Friday. After missing FP1 as planned, FP2 went smoothly and I was feeling good in the car. We tried some things and I think we started the weekend in a better way, compared to Qatar last week. We’re all very close and every millisecond counts here. It seems to not be an easy track for the tyres, and I felt the balance of the car changed throughout the stint, so we’ll look at the data tonight to try and put it all together. The most important thing is that we have clear idea of what to look at and do for the rest of the weekend.”

The most important thing is that we have a clear idea of what to look at and do for the rest of the weekend

Yuki Tsunoda

AlanPermane(RacingDirector)

“A reasonably straightforward day for us. Ayumu did a very creditable job for us in FP1. He didn’t put a foot wrong and did everything we asked of him and we are very happy with his laps and his feedback. One of our tasks today was to evaluate our new front wing and Liam ran it in FP1. It gave us plenty of data to look at, but we reverted back to the standard one for FP2 and we will make a decision tonight on which one to fit for tomorrow. FP2 was about setting the cars up for qualifying and then a long high fuel run on the Medium tyre in preparation for the race. Both guys are reasonably happy with their cars, but there’s always more to come and I’m sure Yuki will find something more, having sat out FP1. Overall, a solid start to the weekend.”