Sergio Perez – Red Bull P1 FP2
“I’m happy with today and I think we’ve definitely made some good progress. We did a very good analysis after Monaco and today felt like I am understanding the car more and how I need to drive it.
“I think this is probably the best Friday of the season for me, it’s the most complete in terms of data and how comfortable I feel with the car.
“Hopefully, we can get a good, clean lap in qualifying tomorrow which is when it matters, but we’ll still work hard tonight to improve and try to find some more lap time.”
Max Verstappen – Red Bull P2 FP2
“Performance-wise I think we had a great start to the weekend here in Baku. It was quite windy out there today which wasn’t easy for any of us, but it definitely makes things more interesting.
“In FP1 the car felt pretty decent, I was quite comfortable and then for FP2 we made a few changes to see if it was better but I don’t think it was, so we’ll look into that overnight and see what direction we will go for qualifying.
“So far I think we look pretty strong as a Team and I’m very happy with that so let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”
Carlos Sainz – Ferrari P3 FP2
“Today we were a bit quicker than we had expected. However, the time sheets can be misleading, with cars getting tows on the straights – myself included – and others not finishing flying laps for various reasons.
“Still, it was an encouraging first day for the team here in Baku.
“Tomorrow afternoon will obviously be a better indicator ahead of qualifying, so we need to work out where we can gain a bit of lap time on the short runs, as well as finding a good compromise to make the tyres work on the long runs.
“There could be opportunities this weekend and we need to be ready to make the most of them.”
Charles Leclerc – Ferrari P4 FP2
“It was definitely a better day than we expected, but it’s only the first day of practice.
“The pace looked promising, and we will keep working overnight to be as competitive tomorrow. I felt quite comfortable in the car today, especially in terms of braking, maybe even too comfortable, pushing a bit too much into turn 15.
“But in the end, that’s what free practice is for – testing the limits. I was on a good lap there and we will see what we can do tomorrow.
“Our main competitors are quick, even though they haven’t shown it yet. We have to make sure we do everything perfectly. We have to maximize our potential and hopefully we can have a good qualifying.”
Pierre Gasly – AlphaTauri P5 FP2
“It’s been a very good Friday for us, a really positive P6 this morning and P5 this afternoon, at the moment I’m feeling very good in the car.
“I’m able to be quite aggressive and push the limits, I went over too far once or twice but that’s how we find the line and extract the maximum from the car.
“I’m pretty pleased so far, especially because we did the lap without any slip streams so potentially there’s more pace available to us tomorrow.”
Fernando Alonso – Alpine P6 FP2
“It was a positive Friday and it’s nice to be back in Baku. The car felt good from FP1 and we didn’t play too much with the settings.
“We have tried different tire combinations in order to understand our needs over the whole weekend and we will learn some valuable data.
“Overall it was a good start to the weekend, but we know we still need to unlock other performance-related areas. ”
Antonio Giovinazzi – Alfa Romeo P7 FP2
“The car felt good from the start: FP1 wasn’t too bad and we made a step forward in the second session. I am happy with what we saw in both the qualifying and the race simulations.
“It’s only Friday but I’m satisfied to be seventh in the standings, hopefully we can carry on this form tomorrow.
“There are still a few little things to improve, of course, but we can be happy so far.
“Tomorrow we will need to put everything together, as always, and make sure we make the most of the two as it will be critical.
“We will try our best and hopefully have a good result.”
Lando Norris – McLaren P8 FP2
“A decent day. Hot! But on the whole, I think it wasn’t too bad. FP1, we looked quite good; FP2 we struggled a little bit more, so we’ll try to understand and see if it was anything we did with the set-up or the conditions.
“A lot of room for improvement going into tomorrow, so we’ll see what we can do with our data tonight and work out how we can improve the car.”
Esteban Ocon – Alpine P9 FP2
“Overall, we had a good day understanding a lot and collecting valuable data, especially on the long stints.
“There are obviously subjects that we have to analyze this evening, but the two cars finished in the top ten this afternoon.
“The track was pretty dirty this morning, but it improved tremendously in FP2. For my part, I was not completely satisfied with the car, but we know which direction to take for the rest of the weekend.
“It is positive and we will have to continue on this dynamic tomorrow.
Yuki Tsunoda – AlphaTauri P10 FP2
“It’s fairly similar to Monaco here, you have to build up the pace and also confidence in the braking zones, as most of the corners need strong braking.
“I went into the run-off areas a few times but it was good practice for me to find the limit and luckily I didn’t go into the wall! I think the progress from FP1 to FP2 was good, I struggled a bit in the morning, so it was a good step up in FP2.
“There are a few areas I still need to work on, but the pace is definitely there this weekend, we just need to put it all together tomorrow.”
