Drivers and teams report from day one of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend, Round 8 of the 2017 Formula 1 World Championship, at the Baku City Circuit.
Red Bull
Max Verstappen: “The whole day has been really positive, except the last lap, everything has been working well. From lap one I felt comfortable in the car, it was handling really well and I was confident with the setup. I think the preparation we did at the factory and in the simulator has allowed us to come here with a strong setup and competitive car from the go. This has definitely been the most positive Friday of the year so far. In the second session I felt I couldn’t get the maximum out of the short run pace due to yellow flags and traffic so we can be very happy to still finish P1. It feels like the cars are quicker through the corners this year, this means if you have a lock up in can be more critical. We are confident heading into Qualifying but also wary that Mercedes will turn their engines up a bit. We are on top at the end of Friday which means they have to catch up so it will be exciting in the session tomorrow. At the end I locked up at turn 1, I could see I wasn’t going to make the corner so decided to take the run off, as I turned right I lost the rear and ended up sliding into the wall.”
Daniel Ricciardo: “It’s been a good day for myself and Max and great that we were in the top three in both sessions. Even though I was second fastest this morning I wasn’t fully content with my session and I knew there was still room to improve in myself and the car. I believe we made those improvements this afternoon and I’m generally a lot happier with where we ended the day. This afternoon was a lot more entertaining, the grip was coming and you could really start to push the car. There’s not much room for error and it’s a pretty high risk circuit in terms of mistakes but that makes it really challenging and rewarding. When you are able to put in a good lap you cross the finish line and smile. Like always, we should not celebrate on a Friday but we are in the ball park, so hopefully tomorrow we can stay at the front.”
Mercedes
Valtteri Bottas: “Practice one was quite tricky: we were struggling with the setup of the car and it wasn’t so well balanced. Today, we needed multiple laps in a row to generate the temperatures we want for a good balance. FP1 wasn’t a happy session, but we made some changes ahead of FP2 and the car definitely felt more comfortable. We are moving in the right direction and hopefully we’ll make another step this evening. We’ll work hard and if we can find those gains we’ll be right up there fighting for pole position.
Lewis Hamilton: “It was a difficult day out there. This circuit is a tough one and we had a few challenges that we tried to work through today. We’ve clearly still got lots of work to do ahead of qualifying, but Valtteri’s time in FP2 looked promising, so there is obviously pace in the car, which is encouraging. Now it’s just a case of getting our heads together tonight to work out exactly how to extract that pace across the entire weekend.”
James Allison, Technical Director: “It was a scrappy day punctuated every few seconds by dozens and dozens of off-track frolics. The associated yellow flags interrupted the rhythm at a circuit where it is quite challenging to get temperature into the tyres, especially the fronts, and that as much as anything dictated your position on the leader board today. However, we have work to do overnight to make the car’s handling sweeter, as both drivers were struggling to get temperature into the front tyres and, as a consequence, suffering with front locking. There is going to be a lot more lap time to come from all of the front runners as the track rubbers in and the drivers gain in confidence. It’s already close at the front, so I expect that those who work well overnight, and keep a cool head tomorrow, will be rewarded in qualifying and the race.”
Williams
Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer: “It was a pretty good day and we completed the intended programme. On Lance’s side that involved learning the circuit, as he’s not been here before and it’s quite a tricky track. I’m pleased to say that he drove very well. He progressively built up his pace and managed to put himself sixth in FP2, and he never went off the circuit, which makes him one of a few drivers who had a clean day. So it was a great job by Lance. Felipe did a number of tests for us, but was probably the worst off in terms of traffic throughout the day. It’s been a very scrappy day with a lot of yellow flags and a lot of traffic, so he wasn’t able to put a good lap together in FP2. But we got some good data from his long runs. It’s extremly competitive out there, with some other teams looking fast. So, we’ll work hard on understanding the performance of the car tonight to make sure that we’re in a strong position for qualifying tomorrow.”
Lance Stroll: “That was good fun, as I am enjoying the track. The car was working well and we didn’t have any issues, which was great. I felt the balance was good and now we just need to think overnight, improve on little bits, come back tomorrow and continue pushing. I think what was really positive was we didn’t have any issues, and nothing that got in the way of us running our programmes. What was really important for me on this kind of track was to get confidence on every lap and every run. Today we did exactly that and didn’t lose any laps with problems or stuff going wrong. Things could be better, as this is still the first day of my first time here and we could improve for the qualifying run, but all in all I have to say it was a very positive day in many ways.”
Felipe Massa: “It was a good day. I was happy with the car. Unfortunately, I couldn’t really put together a lap on fresh tyres, because of the traffic and the yellow flags. But, I was happy with the balance and I was happy with the long runs. The little mistakes that we made today weren’t a big problem, because we didn’t damage anything, which is always a positive thing here. We’re definitely in the fight, so I hope that we can put everything together for qualifying tomorrow.”
Toro Rosso
Daniil Kvyat: “The run programme today was a bit compressed but, nevertheless, we were able to complete most of it, even though I wasn’t able to do as many laps as I would’ve liked to. At least the ones we did were good, even though not everything is clear as conditions were very tricky – it was very easy to make a mistake out there today and we will just try and put it all together tomorrow and see where we are. I don’t think we’re in a bad situation but we need to keep going forward… Tomorrow is a new day!”
Carlos Sainz: “Not the easiest of days. In this morning’s FP1 we had a few issues with the balance of the car and we weren’t able to get it right straight away. This meant that we had to do some changes before FP2 and in this afternoon’s session I felt a lot more comfortable with the car. Unfortunately, I didn’t really get to exploit this improvement because of all the traffic or yellow flags… I think I did about 15 laps on the supersoft but didn’t manage to push during any of them! At least everyone else has been in this same situation, so it’s very difficult to judge where we are. I expect us to improve as soon as we put a lap together on the supersoft tyres tomorrow.”
Jody Egginton, Head of Vehicle Performance: “Both cars had a big test program for FP1and, as such, we dedicated the first 40 minutes to covering a number of specific items. With this completed, the cars were then configured for baseline runs on the supersoft compound. However, with a red flag disrupting the session, we were not able to get a complete read on the baseline set-ups of both cars. Nevertheless, the laps we completed did allow for some quantified set-up changes to be made over the break. Car performance in FP2 was a step in the right direction for both drivers and baseline runs on both the soft and supersoft compounds provided good information regarding set-up direction, especially regarding tyres. With a massive number of yellow flags in the session, Carlos was not able to complete a clean lap on his new supersoft tyre, whilst Daniil did manage a clean lap, so we did gather the necessary data. Both cars moved to long runs but, again with yellow flags causing further disruption, it was not easy to get into a rhythm for both drivers. Overall car balance is okey and, although there is some work to do overnight in order to take the next step for FP3, we are looking forward to the rest of the weekend’s challenges.”
Haas
Romain Grsojean: “A frustrating afternoon – the feeling just wasn’t there. There’s not really much I can say, to be honest. I just had no feeling in the car. That’s obviously something that we need to look at a lot more depth as we’ve effectively lost a session heading into Saturday. Lots of work to do but, hopefully, we can focus and identify the issues and put it right.”
Kevin Magnussen: “It wasn’t too bad today. I think we had a decent day. There’s a lot to look at. This track is pretty special and unique, so we’ll see if we can improve the car for tomorrow. It’s a very fun track to drive. There’s a lot to take in and you’re finding a lot of speed every lap. It’s good to be able to do laps without too many problems on the car. I’m happy with the day.”
Guenther Steiner, Team Principal: “We had a good morning session, but in the afternoon we struggled with everything a little bit. Between traffic, going straight, no feeling in the car – it’s just like we have to start from the beginning. We need to see what changed between FP1 and FP2. A night of hard work is in front of the guys, but let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”
Report in progress…
Read the full story at GRAND PRIX 247
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