FP1
Weather: Warm and dry
Air & Track Temperatures: 21-22C / 28-39C
F Massa, FW40-03, Mercedes-AMG F1 M08 EQ Power+, 1:14.617 (11th)
L Stroll, FW40-02, Mercedes-AMG F1 M08 EQ Power+, 1:15.959 (16th)
Quickest time: L. Hamilton 1:13.425
FP2
Weather: Warm and dry
Air & Track Temperatures: 22-24C / 39-47C
F Massa, FW40-03, Mercedes-AMG F1 M08 EQ Power+, 1:14.003 (13th)
L Stroll, FW40-02, Mercedes-AMG F1 M08 EQ Power+, 1:14.474 (16th)
Quickest time: S. Vettel 1:12.720
Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer: Thursday in Monaco is all about getting in the laps and I think we ran a good programme. We timed our runs well for both drivers as we didn’t encounter too much traffic. Felipe conducted a number of tests throughout both sessions, and we gathered some good information from those. It was Lance’s first time driving around Monaco, and he did a very solid job in building up his confidence and improving his laptimes. By the middle of FP2 he was producing times that were very similar to Felipe’s. Unfortunately, towards the end of the programme we’d planned for him, he braked too late for Massenet and lost the back end. Despite that mistake we’re all happy with what he has achieved today. On the whole the baseline performance of the car isn’t too bad, but there are a few things we need to understand to be better on Saturday; as it’s going to be very close between everyone out on track.
Felipe Massa: Today was a typical first day in Monaco, really. We had to try and understand everything: the tyres, the balance, and try to get used to the track with the new car and new rules. But today was always going to be a learning day. Happy may not be the right word to describe today because we’re not in a great position, but we are a little better than we have been at this track in previous years. It’s definitely going to be a big fight with so many teams around us. But we’ll do everything we can and I hope we’ll be able to understand everything to improve so that we can be ready for qualifying on Saturday.
Lance Stroll: The track is great and I was really happy with the car, but then there was the crash at the end. I just basically centred in looking for the limit, got onto the dirt a little bit and lost the rear. It was a typical street circuit mistake. I got into learning the circuit pretty quickly and I was happy with the day until then. What is good here is the tyre seems to be hanging on quite a bit, so we are able to do multiple push laps. In FP3 I am just going to build up my rhythm in that area, but I think I know pretty clearly in my head what I did wrong. I am going to look at the little areas I can improve on for Saturday, as I know we can do that and have a good day. I think corner eight and the last corner are the two places I need to improve on, but it really annoys me because every time I play the Playstation game it has always been those two corners that I couldn’t get right, and in reality it is still those two corners!
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