Objectives: Set-up work, tyre work, mechanical tests and some aero evaluations.
Mike Coughlan, Technical Director: We continued with the work we started last week at Silverstone to confirm the direction we chose there. We tried different configurations on the mechanical set-up to optimise what we have for this circuit. Tyre temperature was an issue in these conditions so we were lacking some grip. We tested some different rear wing levels as well and so this evening we will decide how much compromise we need to make between setting the car up for qualifying and race performance. We are making progress and everything we are working on is showing that we are making steps in the right direction.
Valtteri Bottas: We were running some mechanical tests in the car today and we got some good data in terms of looking at how the car set-up should be for the weekend. The temperatures will be a bit warmer on Saturday and Sunday, so we need to make the most out of the tyres on both days. The gap between our car and the others hasn’t changed much but we’ll do our best with what we have to see if we can find something more for tomorrow.
Pastor Maldonado: It wasn’t a great day for us but the feeling in the car was better during FP1 than the previous race. We were trying different set-ups and rear wings across both cars, but we still need more speed to close the gap to the cars ahead. I like this circuit and the track conditions were improving every lap. We need to analyse what we found today to make further changes to improve for tomorrow.
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