The grip levels were low and it was very difficult to get the hard tyre compound to work. I suspect we will not see much of it on track for the rest of the weekend as the medium and soft compounds are much more representative of what we need for qualifying and the race. We have a lot to do to understand the data we collected today. Of course, when you are testing a lot of different things, it’s tricky to set the car up, but I think we now have a good base on which to build.

It’s been a fairly routine Friday, going through our programme without any dramas. We were able to cover a lot of ground and test some development items. Now our focus goes back to the task of preparing for tomorrow’s qualifying. The conditions out there weren’t ideal today: it was very windy and the tyres are very hard, meaning it was difficult to find grip. The soft compound is the one that works best on this track and it’s going to be a challenge to work with the others. We have some work to do tonight, but I am confident we’ll be well prepared for the rest of the weekend.

We had a very busy day, with a full testing programme and several new parts to evaluate between the two cars throughout the sessions. Things have gone to plan and we managed to gather all the essential data that we needed. From now on, it’s a standard race weekend: we will need to make all the right decisions overnight and put the best car on track for FP3 and qualifying. This is a track we know very well from winter testing, but the temperatures are much higher now compared to February. Understanding the performance of the tyres has been an important factor during the day so completing our long runs in the afternoon was very important. Qualifying tomorrow will be crucial because it is very hard to overtake here and your starting position is vital.