Sainz: We were surprised how uneven the asphalt turned out

Carlos Sainz first showed the results of Friday’s practice in Singapore, but at the same time complained that it was not pleasant to drive due to the car’s too rigid settings. But when he drove 23 laps and completed the program in full, Charles Leclerc was prevented by technical problems and managed to do only 14 laps.

Carlos Sainz (1st): “Friday went well overall, we went through the program completely after doing a lot of laps. On a track like Singapore this is very important.

We had to overcome some difficulties: we were certainly surprised by how uneven the asphalt surface was here and how badly the car behaved with such ground clearance. The settings were very tough, but in the second session things went a little better. In any case, we still have work to do on the car as it looks like a very sharp battle will ignite for a place in the top six.

In the second session it was already more comfortable to fly, but we are still far from the level we want to be. To get a good lap on the Singapore circuit it’s important to have confidence in the car – then you can get all sectors together, but so far we haven’t been able to do that.

Charles Leclerc (2nd): “We showed good speed, but unfortunately we didn’t work long enough on the track today. The situation is not ideal, there were enough problems, so we have to try to do the third practice effectively to work on the race pace.

But we have good speed in one fast lap, so tomorrow we will fight for pole position.

On city roads you always want to do as many laps as possible – the more there are, the faster you are. But I’m not too worried because I’m sure we can have a good final practice and catch up.

Although it is difficult to judge what race pace we are capable of, the direction of the work in practice has been chosen correctly and I hope that tomorrow we can take the next step forward. In any case, as it is very hot here, we have a tough race ahead of us.”