Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon set the eleventh and eighteenth time respectively in the second practice session of the French Grand Prix. The new items that were on the Alpine machines on Friday worked as expected. On Saturday, the team plans to test other updates.
Fernando Alonso (11th): “Difficult Friday – especially difficult to fly in extreme heat in France. We did our best to adapt the car to such high temperatures, concentrating during both sessions on monitoring the condition of the tires and cooling them.
We are not yet completely satisfied with the balance of the car, so in the evening we have to think about what adjustments need to be made to the settings. I’m sure we will improve and be in good shape for tomorrow’s qualifying for our fans.”
Esteban Ocon (18th): “First of all I want to say that it is great to be piloting in France for home fans. Nothing compares to playing at home – as a French rider it’s great to see so many spectators in the grandstands of the Paul Ricard circuit already on Friday.
Talking about today’s workout, we tested different options on two machines, collecting a lot of useful information. We evaluated the Soft and Medium formulations with an empty and full tank and gathered enough information to make the correct adjustments to the car tomorrow morning. We can certainly look forward to more.”
Pat Fry, technical director: “The training for the home Grand Prix went without any problems. The weather has been hot – we may have seen the hottest Friday of the season which has created additional difficulties, but we have to face them and improve.
The team brought innovations to this race, with which both riders went to work in two sessions. The novelties have lived up to expectations and we have gathered information that will come in handy over the weekend. Tomorrow we will put the next updates on the car, which should improve the speed.
Both riders had balance issues – obviously compared to rivals we are not in the positions we want. However, both drivers gave similar feedback, giving us a clear picture of where we need to go to get the car ready for qualifying. I’m sure tomorrow’s results will match our pace.”
Source: F1 News
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