2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix – Free Practice "We had an encouraging day, and the car looks to be in good shape"
Baku City Circuit, Friday 4 June
Hear from McLaren Formula 1 drivers Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo, and Executive Director, Racing, Andrea Stella after practice for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
LANDO NORRIS, #4
| FP1 | 1m43.996s (+0.812s) | 20 laps | 8th |
| FP2 | 1m43.018s (+0.903s) | 24 laps | 8th |
“A decent day. Hot! But on the whole, I think it wasn't too bad. FP1, we looked quite good; FP2 we struggled a little bit more, so we’ll try to understand and see if it was anything we did with the set-up or the conditions. A lot of room for improvement going into tomorrow, so we’ll see what we can do with our data tonight and work out how we can improve the car.”
Azerbaijan Grand Prix Baku City Circuit
1 Jan 1970
DANIEL RICCIARDO, #3
| FP1 | 1m43.732s (+0.548s) | 25 laps | 5th |
| FP2 | 1m43.298s (+1.183s) | 23 laps | 13th |
“It was a pretty good day. We certainly found a few things and made progress. The lap times don’t always tell the full story, and 13th doesn’t show much, but I think we’re a lot closer than that. Obviously, we’ve still got to work hard to make it happen, but I think today was certainly a step in the right direction and I feel more comfortable and confident going into tomorrow.”
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ANDREA STELLA, Executive Director, Racing
“An interesting and productive Friday. We didn’t suffer any major disruptions and acquired a lot of data. This track sets plenty of challenges for the team. For the drivers, it’s always a challenge with the low grip and the walls, for the engineers it’s the tough choices on choosing the best rear wing level. The tyre allocation this year is interesting too, with both the Soft and Medium compounds having high degradation. However, we had an encouraging day, and the car looks to be in good shape. We’re looking forward to building from here for a positive qualifying session tomorrow, and a good race on Sunday.”
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