McLaren Racing Formula One Team Principal Andrea Stella says that it was a relatively productive day for the team in Suzuka on Friday.
It’s been a relatively productive day of practice here in Suzuka, despite the second session having been interrupted by a few Red Flags for different reasons. We are all relieved to see that Jack Doohan could walk away from what was a big crash, which left us worried for a few seconds.
“Overall, we would have liked to have taken a bit more of a look at the behaviour of the tyres, but it’s the same for everyone, so we will now try to put together all of the information we have acquired to be prepared for Qualifying and the race.”
Lando Norris who currently leads the championship was fastest in First Practice and was second in FP2.
“A good first day back on track. It takes a little bit of time to get back in the rhythm of things around here because it’s so quick, but the car is in a reasonable place. We’ll work together overnight to make some changes going into tomorrow, but I’m feeling positive.”
Oscar Piastri was 15th in practice one and was fastest in second practice and speaking following the action he said:
It’s been a bit of an up-and-down day but there’s definitely been positives in there. We’ve got a few things to tidy up for tomorrow. FP2 was a pretty stop-start session, which made it tricky to go through everything but there were still some good learnings. A couple of tweaks and we’ll be good to go.”