05/04/2024
NEWS STORY
Max Verstappen: "It was a good start for us today. The bounce wasn't too far out and I felt comfortable with the car.
"There are still a few things to try and look at but, overall, it was a good FP1. Of course, in FP2 we couldn't do anything, which was a shame as this means that we don't know the long run pace, but we can't do anything about the weather. In general, it looks like everyone is a bit closer compared to last year and I don't expect the same kind of gaps here at this track. There are a few things that we still want to look at tomorrow, but overall I felt quite happy with what we had and the laps that we did. Suzuka is usually a good track for the Team, so we are confident going into the weekend."
Sergio Perez: "It was unfortunately not a very busy Friday, so we probably got the most out of what we could. We were expecting a better P2 but unfortunately the rain prevented us from running and that meant we couldn't get any more learnings. I think we have a good base from the morning though, we just have to try and dial up a bit of balance and hopefully we can be in a nice position. I was pleased with the car from the running we had, we have made some changes ahead of this race and it feels good. We had made some alterations for P2 and obviously we didn't manage to get the read on those but we are in a similar boat to a lot of teams around us. It will be a very busy practice session tomorrow, we are going to be doing some high fuel runs and then go into quali prep, so it should be an interesting morning. We are confident for this weekend; I think the car is working well."
Check out our Friday gallery from Suzuka here.