Pierre Gasly (AT03-01, Car 10)
Second Practice Session – Best lap: 1:15.636, pos. 7th, 32 laps
Sprint – Pos. 10th

“I’m happy with today, starting 12th and finishing 10th, it was our main goal today to recover some positions ahead of tomorrow’s race. The start of the race was good, it was tricky trying to reach the end on the Softs, but we’ve finished in a strong position. We had some nice battles out there and I don’t think we could’ve done much better. We’re in the top 10, we know we’re capable of fighting up there, so we’ll try to come away with some points.”

Yuki Tsunoda (AT03-03, Car 22)
Second Practice Session – Best lap: 1:15.865, pos. 12th, 32 laps
Sprint – Pos. 16th

“I managed to gain some positions at the start but unfortunately, I didn’t have the pace after that and I really struggled. It’s been a difficult weekend in general, as I’ve really lacked grip, and there’s not much you can change after Qualifying in the Sprint format, which makes things harder. I don’t think tomorrow will be that easy, but I’ll do whatever I can to try and make my way forward.”

Jonathan Eddolls (Chief Race Engineer)

“The focus for FP2 was tyre evaluation in preparation for the Sprint. As the cars were in Parc Fermé we couldn’t make any mechanical changes to them, so it was a case of understanding the optimum aero balance and tyre management techniques to make the tyres survive for the 24 laps. There was a part of us that was hoping for some rain today, as we’d shown that the car was competitive on the Inters on Friday, but it never appeared at the track. This meant we started both cars on the Softs which, from FP2, was faster over the Sprint distance. Both drivers made up places at the start, and Pierre was able to capitalise on the Alpines dropping back, but Vettel was just a bit quicker than us today, so we couldn’t keep him behind. Yuki continued to struggle with sliding but made a couple of places at the end with the penalty of Stroll and passing Ocon, we need to understand why he was struggling that much. Tomorrow is looking dry, so we will need to evaluate the strategic options we have to try to maximise our chances in the race tomorrow.”