Pierre Gasly: "It has been a positively surprising Friday for us where we have had one of our better Practice days of the season so far.

"We arrived here expecting some challenges given the conditions and some uncertainties as to how the car would behave at this circuit. We have had two good sessions today where I have felt good right from the first laps of the day. The altitude here always makes the car feel strange but, compared to recent years at this track, I am feeling much more at ease. We have a good baseline to work from going into the rest of the weekend where we have a few areas to fine tune. It's not massive things which we need to improve, a bit on braking as well as getting the car more comfortable with some bumps in the high-speed, but it's quite small details. The gaps are also small, only a few hundredths between a few cars, and it will be about putting it all together when it counts."

Franco Colapinto: "Even though it might not look that way from the lap times, the overall feeling after today was positive. We were catching up a little after missing Free Practice 1, but we are not as far off as maybe the timings show. I made a small error in the final sector and did not get the most out of my Soft tyre run. I know exactly where I need to improve for tomorrow and will also work with the team overnight to put ourselves in a stronger position. The long run pace was also positive, so if we can qualify well, we should hopefully be in contention for some points this weekend."

Gabriele Mini: "That was an amazing experience for me to drive for the first time in an official Formula One session. Firstly, a big thank you to Flavio, Steve and the team for the opportunity, it was a truly memorable moment for me. As I left the garage, I was waiting in the pit lane with Lewis [Hamilton] in front of me, which was very cool. There were some legends of the sport out on track, people I have looked up to since I was a kid, so to be there with them was incredibly special. I would say the session itself was positive on our side. The team had a clear plan for me which meant some aero testing and data collection which will hopefully benefit the team in the future. I tried to stay consistent and build up the pace lap after lap. I did some good laps but if I am being critical of myself, I did not click everything together so that is something for me to look at and learn from. It's a very unique circuit with the conditions; tough on aero, tough on the power unit and there is a lot to understand and manage. That is all part of the learning process, though, and it was great to experience it all for the first time."

Steve Nielsen: "Taking the day as a whole, I think we can be largely positive and confident heading into the rest of the weekend. We won't rest on our laurels though and we know we still have work to do and it's incredibly tight, particularly on one lap pace. Pierre really got into a good groove today and spoke very highly of his feeling inside the car, which is something we want to carry over into Qualifying tomorrow. Franco also fed back that he has a good feeling and knows where he can improve. The high fuel running in particular looked strong, but we know the field is more closely matched in Qualifying, so we need to look at extracting everything over a single lap. Also, it was a great job by Gabriele today, which was his first time in this car, and he did exactly what we expected of him."

LATEST NEWS

more news >

LATEST IMAGES

galleries >

Click to go to the main galleries section

READERS COMMENTS

No comments posted as yet, would you like to be the first to have your say?

Mexico City Grand Prix: Practice team notes - Alpine

LATEST NEWS

RELATED ARTICLES

LATEST IMAGES

POST A COMMENT

Post your comment

READERS COMMENTS

Share this page