20/05/2021
NEWS STORY
Pierre Gasly: "It's been a very good day for us. In terms of pace it was great and this morning was a strong way to start here in Monaco - I felt confident in the car and could push hard. This afternoon we finished within the top ten, so we're still pretty pleased with that, but it was a lot harder in the car. Hopefully I can work with the guys over the next day to improve in the areas where we are struggling but generally, we are quite happy with it. Monaco is so unique - in terms of grip and it's also very bumpy - so we need to find out what works best with our package to make it work well around here. We have a good baseline but hopefully we can continue to improve ahead of Qualifying, as we know how crucial it is to Qualify well around these streets."
Yuki Tsunoda: "Sadly, my second session ended early today - I wasn't pushing too hard into the corner, but I lost grip at the end of the turn and unfortunately tapped the wall. I'm not sure how much this will affect my preparation for the race, obviously a loss of running isn't ideal, but I've got two sets of Softs for Saturday now so it's not the worst case. I just need to prepare more for Saturday and put it altogether when it counts."
Jonathan Eddolls (Chief Race Engineer): "The track started very green for free practice one, which meant there was very low grip. With the compound allocation this weekend we had a hard tyre to essentially use up for our first stint, which allowed us to get a feeling for the track. We then moved to the Softs for more of a performance run, which focussed on giving the drivers as many laps as possible. FP1 went very well, with both drivers building up their confidence lap by lap and putting in a good performance, whilst helping us understand the set-up of the car, which is very difficult here in Monaco. We tried to carry this momentum into FP2 and on Pierre's side he performed well and the pace looked good. Unfortunately, Yuki just clipped the rear in the last sector and this sadly damaged the suspension. Due to the time it takes to fix this part of the car, that was the end of the day for him. It puts him a bit on the back foot ahead of Qualifying, but he's still got another session to go on Saturday morning, so we'll give him the best possible preparation ahead of Qualifying."
Check out our Thursday gallery from Monaco, here.