31/08/2018
NEWS STORY
Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer: We had a biblical rain storm first thing this morning which meant we didn't achieve too much in FP1 in the mixed conditions. We got a balance on the wet tyres and checked the rear wing in wet conditions, but all of our normal work needed to be done in FP2. We ran a regular programme but this was also condensed after Ericsson's accident which brought out the red flag right at the beginning. We still managed to run all three tyre compounds at low fuel across the two cars, and also complete long runs on both cars. The battle to get into Q2 will be quite tight but we remain optimistic that if we do a good job overnight with the set-up and have a good FP3 session, we can get one or both cars into Q2 tomorrow. We're very happy to see Marcus Ericsson in good shape after such a terrible accident.
Sergey Sirotkin: I think it's been a very good Friday. We had good pace in the wet, but it's difficult to say how we'll be tomorrow as we don't know what the weather will be like. Today's shown good signs of performance. The conditions have favoured us as they haven't been hot. I had some issues throughout my lap which we need to understand and see if we can fix or not. They cost me quite a lot of time on my best lap. Had it not been for that, I think we wouldn't have been far from the top ten which is a good sign. It's a good weekend.
Lance Stroll: It looks better compared to the others, but we will see what tomorrow brings. We look a bit better now, but on Friday it is hard to know what people are doing with modes, fuel levels and that, so we will have a better idea tomorrow. We had some good running and this morning it was fun to get out in the rain for a few laps. It was short, as it was only three laps, but still it brought back some good memories from last year. I like this sort of track, as it is always fun to brake at 330 kph and get that last metre out of the braking zone. It is very challenging as you have to really build up to it and have the confidence to hit the pedal late and modulate off the pressure at the perfect time. Around Monza, we also see some nice overtaking moves, which provides a bit of a chance to gain positions in the race which is great.