No real surprises from either of the free practice sessions from our point of view, apart from the fact that the performance gaps between all the compounds is a little bit bigger than expected for now, and the red flag interrupted the long FP2 runs at a crucial moment. Given that FP3 tomorrow will be run in warm daytime conditions, analysing tonight's data carefully will be particularly important as the teams work out their qualifying strategy: whether to approach Q2 with the medium tyre – which could be a valid tactic – or instead the soft tyre, if they believe it will last well enough throughout the opening race stint. The hard could equally play a pivotal role on race day for those who start on the soft, with a considerable number of teams trying it during FP2. This evening resulted in best lap times that are around a second faster than they were in the same session at Yas Marina last year: a sure sign that Formula 1 continues to evolve and become constantly quicker, so we need to ensure tyres that match this progress.