2021 Turkish Grand Prix – Free Practice "We had two good sessions, didn't face any major problems and have gathered a lot of data"
Istanbul Park, Friday 8 October
Hear from McLaren Formula 1 drivers Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo, and Executive Director, Racing, Andrea Stella after practice for the Turkish Grand Prix.
LANDO NORRIS, #4
| FP1 | 1m25.347s (+1.169s) | 26 laps | 7th |
| FP2 | 1m24.525s (+0.721s) | 24 laps | 6th |
“It felt good to be back in the car and to get things going again. It’s been a decent Friday, quite different conditions to what we had in Turkey last season. It feels like a different track altogether. I think we learned quite a bit today in preparation for tomorrow and the race. Friday was exactly what we needed, and we’ll try to do better again tomorrow.”
Turkish Grand Prix Istanbul Park
DANIEL RICCIARDO, #3
| FP1 | 1m25.750s (+1.572s) | 26 laps | 12th |
| FP2 | 1m25.060s (+1.256s) | 23 laps | 14th |
“Firstly, it was fun, in terms of the track and the level of grip. It was so different to last year and definitely more enjoyable. I’ll be very surprised if a driver says otherwise! It’s pretty high speed and sections of it are pretty relentless, which just makes it a good track to drive around. I think the time doesn’t really represent the feeling in the car today. I feel a lot better than where we are on the timesheets, so we’re not concerned about that. We’ve still a bit of work to do on setup, but nothing too crazy. We’ll push on tonight, do some productive work and come out swinging tomorrow.”
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ANDREA STELLA, Executive Director, Racing
“The circuit we’ve used today is very different to the one we had last year, with asphalt much closer to ‘normal’ in terms of grip. Our main objective today was understanding tyre behaviour in preparation for qualifying and the race. We had two good sessions, didn’t face any major problems and have gathered a lot of data. We’re in a pretty good place in terms of being prepared for the race, but of course before that we have qualifying, and the forecast shows there’s some inclement weather around. It looks like it’s going to be an interesting Saturday.”
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