Practice quotes: Sauber, Force India, Williams

Sauber

Charles Leclerc: “In general, it was a positive day for us. Our pace is quite good and we completed the programme we had planned. It was productive for us to test the different tyres we have for the weekend. I really enjoy driving on this track, and it is a good experience to complete my first laps in a Formula 1 car here. We are looking at our data and making sure we can have a strong performance during tomorrow’s sessions. Let’s see what will be possible.”

Marcus Ericsson: “We completed a good number of laps and ran on all of the three tyre compounds for the weekend. We built on what we learned in France last weekend, with a set-up that suits my driving style well. We were in the midfield today, which is positive. Tonight, we will work on optimising everything, so that we can have a strong performance tomorrow.”

Force India

Esteban Ocon: “We were expecting some rain today so it’s quite a relief to have two dry sessions.  We completed lots of laps and just worked through the programme. It was all pretty normal, trying the test items, improving the set-up and understanding the tyres. The morning pace was solid with P8, but second practice was a bit more challenging. We haven’t found the best balance for the car yet so we need to improve for tomorrow.”

Sergio Perez: “I don’t think we really showed our true speed today, especially in second practice when our run was affected by the red flag. The sessions went to plan, but I’m not yet comfortable with the car balance. That’s where we need to work tonight to see if we can find something in the data to improve things before qualifying. If we can find a couple of tenths it will make a massive difference on this short track. Of course, we think it’s going to be much hotter tomorrow and the higher temperatures will impact on car balance again. We will have a lot of work to do in final practice to get on top of things.”

Williams

Sergey Sirotkin: “It was a good session, we had a busy programme with a lot of things to try. I think we managed quite well. We completed all our planned runs, we tried all the things and we still had a reasonable long run pace which is a positive end to the session. I’m not saying that tomorrows qualifying will match today but we have covered many things and we are happy with the work and the results we are getting. It’s nice to be back in the car after missing FP1.”

Lance Stroll: “It was another practice day just figuring everything out and getting ourselves in the best shape for going into tomorrow. I think it was a good day where we learnt quite a bit going into qualifying. The kerbs have always been something here that us drivers have to watch out for as there are some big yellow ones on all the exits, so we have to know our limits. This morning I had a bit of downshift problem going into third and then we lost radio communication, so I just boxed in case it was something but it was fine as the team was on top of it.”

Robert Kubica: “It was good to be back in the car after nearly two months, and the feeling was good as I have not driven here for nearly 15 years. The track is short and looks easy however, it is quite a tricky track, but I found a reasonable pace straight away. We focused mainly on trying some extreme solutions just to gather more data and put the car in an extreme window to really highlight the areas where we might be struggling. It was quite strange to drive but I think it was worthwhile and overall a good session.”