Williams Chinese Grand Prix Practice

Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer: We had a pretty busy programme planned for today with a lot of aerodynamic tests. With rain predicted for FP2, we shuffled the tyres around between both sessions relative to our normal pattern. We’ve completed all of our programmes that we set out to do, even though we lost some track time with the rain at the end, and Lance flat spotting a set of tyres in FP2. I think we’ve got some good data to analyse that will put us in a better place tomorrow. Overall, there’s still a lot of work to do away from the track, but we will do what we can trackside to maximise the performance this weekend. 

Lance Stroll: We had a tough FP2. In FP1 we were on the medium tyres for the session, but in FP2 I made a mistake on my first run and ran off the track. I was on a good lap on my second run and lost the car, and that was it as I never really set a laptime. Then we went into the race simulation which seemed half decent. The car seems a little bit better on ultrasofts, like in Australia, but we are still towards the back. I think it is going to be difficult again to get out of Q1.

Sergey Sirotkin: It’s tough, but we didn’t expect it to be easy. We know where we are and we know there’s a lot of work to be done. So far, it’s looking quite good. We are not the fastest car, but the way we work is good. We tried a couple of interesting things in the morning and in FP2. The long runs were a bit messy with traffic and rain, so it was not the most productive afternoon. Personally, I’m quite happy. I can point out the progress. Tomorrow and the race can be different, but I’m happy with my progress and with the team.