We made some changes overnight to try and improve the long run and that has likely cost us some single lap pace.
Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles
What we saw tonight is that, once again, the competition around us will be extremely tight, and one tenth can be the difference between making it to Q2 or going out in the first segment.
A well-executed qualifying session sets us up nicely for a strong race where we can compete for strong points.
From FP3, we focused on our low-fuel performance and after the sessions we thought if we could do a good job, we can get into Q2 - we achieved that.
While it appears to be business as usual, what with Max Verstappen on pole, with the next seven drivers covered by just 0.276s, the Dutchman looks to have a fight on his hands.
Carlos Sainz set the pace in final practice session as the true pecking order remains a mystery.
As Lewis Hamilton claims to be surprised at his car's pace, world champion Max Verstappen suggests that all is not what it would appear to be.
Team representatives press conference with: Toto Wolff, Zak Brown), Frederic Vasseur and Laurent Mekies.
The long runs in FP2 were almost all done on the C3 and demonstrated that even the softest compound could be competitive over a long stint.
Overall, a productive first day of practice. We had no major issues and we got through our test programme.
Overall, it was still a productive day during which we completed all the testing we had on our programme.
We didn't quite get everything from the soft tyres today but we can improve that tomorrow. There is work to do but we have a solid platform to build on.