It was a very promising start to our weekend, on a day in which our priority was to get in all of our planned running. Driving around this track is always a lot of fun as it’s a circuit that tests you to the limit. Even the newly-resurfaced areas have pretty good grip, so it gives you confidence as you drive. We ticked all the boxes in our plan and we were able to run on Ultra Soft tyres in the afternoon to learn about them. The feeling I got from the car is positive: there are a few tweaks we can make to get a bit more grip here and there, but the potential for a good weekend is there. It’s up to us to work well now and turn this promising start into a good result.

Driving in Monaco is always a big challenge, even during the practice sessions, because you have to find your rhythm quickly and build up speed with each lap. It has been a good day with no issues and we’ve collected the information we need on all three tyre compounds. I’m not completely happy with the car yet so I think there’s more to come. That’s what we need to look at tonight and tomorrow to make sure I feel totally confident with the car, which is especially important here.

Our main aim today was to give the drivers as much time on track as possible and in this regard they both did a great job, keeping their noses clean and clocking up the laps. It was a classic Monaco Friday, where a mistake can cost you a lot of time. We had quite a busy programme today, with both aero and mechanical test items in our plan. One of the main tasks was understanding the three tyre compounds, including the new Ultra Soft tyre, as each presents its own challenges around this track. As usual, we saw a lot of track evolution as the day progressed so this will be taken into account when we look at our data. We are quite happy with the long run pace and the drivers’ feedback is positive as well, so we have a solid base on which to build. We have a lot of data to analyse, courtesy of nearly 160 laps, and plenty of time to look at it. Our focus now is to extract some extra performance from the car for qualifying, which is crucial around such a narrow track, where overtaking is very hard.