2021 Qatar Grand Prix – Free Practice "It's fast, it's high-speed and it's a good challenge"
Losail International Circuit, Friday 19 November
Hear from McLaren Formula 1 drivers Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo, and Executive Director, Racing, Andrea Stella after practice for the Qatar Grand Prix.
LANDO NORRIS, #4
| FP1 | 1m25.215s (+1.492s) | 19 laps | 10th |
| FP2 | 1m23.632s (+0.484s) | 24 laps | 5th |
“A good start to the weekend. In a way, more positive than we were expecting, I think because of the type of track layout we have here. I think we were anticipating a few more problems and possibly difficulties than we had. I think there are still some weaknesses we’ve got to work on, but on the whole a solid start. I like the track, it’s good fun, especially being a night session as well – we haven’t had a night session in quite a while. It’s fast, it’s high-speed and it’s a good challenge."
Qatar Grand Prix Losail International Circuit
DANIEL RICCIARDO, #3
| FP1 | 1m25.291s (+1.568s) | 24 laps | 11th |
| FP2 | 1m24.135s (+0.987s) | 24 laps | 14th |
“This track’s fun. The initial impressions are that it’s good with it being flowing and pretty fast. We didn’t really progress in the second session. We changed the car a bit to experiment with a few things, but it was probably two steps off, so we’ve still got a bit to find there. Lando was more promising and we can learn a bit from that car. I was a bit off in the first sector so got some work to do there – but I’m not concerned, just a few things to look into tonight. Competitiveness-wise, I think Ferrari will be there tomorrow and Alpha Tauri looked quick. Hopefully we can find a bit more for Saturday.”
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ANDREA STELLA, Executive Director, Racing
“Overall, we’re relatively happy after our first day in Qatar. The track is fast, flowing and the drivers are enjoying it. Losail provides some challenges from a car set-up point of view, and because some of the kerbs are very aggressive. Some teams have experienced problems with those, us included, and we’ll try to address that overnight. We have plenty of analysis to do before tomorrow, but we’re looking forward to qualifying and the race. Several cars seem to be in good shape, but we’re eager to have a strong showing here.”
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