15/04/2016
NEWS STORY
All in all, a good day for Manor Racing at the Shanghai International Circuit, where Pascal and Rio recovered well from a disrupted morning's track time to end the day in 17th and 19th positions.
Pascal Wehrlein: "Second free practice was good; the first session was a bit messy with the two red flags, one on each set of tyres. This afternoon we did short and long runs, tried a few things with the set-up and everything seemed to be working well, no issues. The main point is that tyre degradation is really high; on the front left it's massive. Everyone is struggling though so let's see what tomorrow brings. We have to keep improving the car balance and watch our temperatures but so far it looks quite similar to how things were on Friday in Bahrain, so I'm quite positive."
Rio Haryanto: "Today has mainly been about preparation for the race and understanding the tyre choices for Shanghai. It's been a good day and a long run during the last 40 minutes has generated some good data for us to look at this evening. It's good to see us in the same sort of mix as we saw in Bahrain. Tomorrow looks like rain, which we haven't had since Friday in Australia. That could be interesting, as it will shake things up a little; hopefully in a good way for us."
Dave Ryan, Racing Director: "It hasn't been the smoothest of days for anyone, largely due to the two red flags this morning disrupting the programme and partly managing the situation with the high tyre degradation that everyone seems to be suffering with. We've focused mainly on the race and therefore the Medium and Soft compounds but tomorrow morning we'll have the chance to explore how things look on the SuperSoft, which most teams set their best times on this afternoon. That will give us a better indication of how we're looking for qualifying."
Check out our Friday gallery, here.