25/06/2021
NEWS STORY
Pierre Gasly: "This morning was great, the pace and performance of the car was strong and everything went well, so it was a really positive session for the start of the weekend. Unfortunately, the team spotted an issue on the PU and didn't want to take any risks, so have spent the afternoon checking this. There were some things we wanted to try during FP2 so it's a shame to have not been able to do that but at the end of the day, there's nothing we can do about it and we just need to look forward to tomorrow now. Yuki didn't feel as comfortable in the car this afternoon as he was in FP1, so we need to go away and analyse all the data we have ahead of tomorrow, then we can piece everything together for Qualifying."
Yuki Tsunoda: "I'm fairly happy with today. We saw in FP1 that the short run pace of the car is definitely there, and I was able to put in some good lap times during the session. However, on the longer runs in FP2 I struggled quite a bit with the balance of the car, so I need to work on that tonight. I know there's a chance of rain tomorrow, but I would prefer dry conditions if I'm honest. I don't have a lot of experience in the wet in Formula 1 so that would make things trickier for me. If it's dry, I just need to put everything together step-by-step in Qualifying and increase my confidence as I go through the session."
Jonathan Eddolls (Chief Race Engineer): "Given the risk of rain in FP2 we brought forward our typical plan to FP1, so both drivers focused on short run performance across the Mediums followed by the Soft tyres. We then split the cars, with Pierre completing long stints on the Soft tyre and Yuki doing the same with the Mediums. As the focus was on tyre understanding there was little room for setup testing and optimisation, but we were able to hit the ground running with the car and the performance was looking promising. Additionally, the soft tyre over the long run behaved reasonably well, even with the high track temperatures. During the break, Honda spotted something strange in the data on the PU and did not want to take any risks, we chose to investigate the issue fully this afternoon and therefore Pierre didn't run in FP2. It's an unfortunate situation because FP2 ended up being almost completely dry, so Pierre did lose out, but at least the performance was looking strong in the morning and I am confident he will be able to repeat it in FP3. For Yuki, again we completed a typical FP2 plan, but unfortunately he was not able to show his full potential in his first push on the Softs, meaning the final classification today is not fully representative. Putting it all together we know there is more to come tomorrow."
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