Max Chilton: "Obviously a very difficult day for everyone in the Team, and one in which we have had to dig deep in order to focus on the race weekend ahead. In terms of the Free Practice sessions, we have had a productive day from a technical set-up and track learning perspective. The new circuit here is impressive; I like the fast-flowing high-speed sections and the slow-speed technical challenges. This evening will give us a chance to reflect on the day a little more and hopefully we will come back stronger still tomorrow."

Dave Greenwood, Chief Engineer: "A tough day in which Jules has continued to be uppermost in our thoughts, but we can be very proud of our race team for the way they have handled themselves. Max has had a similarly tough job, but, again, he has remained strong and focused and done everything required of him to complete our planned programme. This morning's focus was to give Max the maximum running time in order to allow him to learn the circuit. Max has progressed well during both sessions, making incremental gains as the day has gone on. It is clear that there has been a reasonable amount of track improvement during the day, which has favoured running new option tyres later, however with the track time we have achieved, we have evaluated several set-up changes during the day. Tonight will be about assessing each change in the data and confirming which solutions to carry over into Saturday."

Check out our Friday gallery, here.