26/10/2018
NEWS STORY
Max Verstappen: "Today has been really good, better than expected. Not just for me but for Daniel also, it's nice to have us both at the top. We have a very good car at this circuit, good downforce and good mechanical grip. This was already clear from Monaco earlier in the year and you can see again it is working really well here. If you have good grip you can make quite a big gap quickly because the surface is quite slippery out there. As always there are areas to improve but for now it's looking good. I said in Japan that it was one of my worst Friday's in F1, this has been one of the best. The car was quick here last year but after today I think we are more competitive than 2017. We think I had a small issue with hydraulics at the end but we haven't been able to check the car yet. We are not too concerned ahead of tomorrow, the guys will investigate this evening but hopefully it is a quick fix."
Daniel Ricciardo: "Our car worked really well on low fuel runs in both sessions today which should put us in a good position for qualifying, but I don't want to be naïve as I'm sure Mercedes and Ferrari will turn it up and give us a push tomorrow. If it stays like this it could be a close six-way fight for pole which would be pretty exciting for everyone. Tomorrow I want to work more on our race pace and the high fuel runs as we weren't quite as competitive on those. It seems with the altitude here everyone's power levels are closer, we will see tomorrow once everyone goes into qualifying mode but today on paper we look good. The key in qualifying will be to get a clean lap as it's still quite slippery around here and it's easy to make small mistakes. The Hypersoft is graining a lot, which is actually quite nice, as most of the races this season have been easy on a one-stop so maybe we will actually get a two-stop this weekend."
Check out our Friday gallery from Mexico City, here.