23/10/2020
NEWS STORY
Max Verstappen: "It was quite tricky out there and the new tarmac seems slippery with only one proper line to use as you lose a lot of grip if you run wide. The wind also picked up in the afternoon but overall I think we improved the car from FP1 to FP2 so it all felt a little bit nicer to drive. We will keep trying to improve even further as there are still things we can do better around here. It was interesting to try two new compounds of Pirelli tyres. We don't know what they were but one set felt a bit better than the other but they both felt nice. I'm not sure if they are faster than what we usually use but I don't have anything negative to say. It is difficult to say if we can fight Mercedes this weekend as they look very quick but never say never and we always try our best and see where we are tomorrow."
Alex Albon: "The track is fun but it was a bit like an ice rink with the lack of grip and increasing wind. With the track temperature dropping and the wind picking up the track didn't really rubber in throughout the day so I actually felt better in FP1 than in FP2. It's a new challenge which makes it interesting and I'm sure with another Free Practice session tomorrow the track will feel better for qualifying. It's hard to know where we really are after today and you can see the difference in times throughout the rest of the field is very erratic which I think is just down to the changing wind conditions each run, so we'll know more tomorrow on where everyone stands."
Check out our Friday gallery from Portimao, here.