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Toro Rosso delighted with successful Thursday

Toro Rosso delighted with "successful" Thursday

23-05-2019 18:15
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Bobby Vincent

Toro Rosso were very pleased with its competitive showing on Thursday, with Alex Albon recording a P5 finish in FP2 for the Red Bull junior side.

Albon impressed on Thursday, after setting the fifth-fastest time in the second free practice session. The British-born Thai driver was the only midfield driver to get within a second off leader Lewis Hamilton.

The F1 rookie finished half-a-second ahead of his more experienced team-mate Daniil Kvyat in the process, also. Albon said he was delighted with Toro Rosso's speed in the practice sessions, but is wary of the rival teams catching up with them in time for the qualifying on Saturday.

“It was a good day for us, it’s really fun out there and I like the track a lot,” said Albon.

“I think we got the car in the right window, now we just need to study what we’ve learnt from today, so we can fine-tune the car and get ready for Saturday.

“We made a couple of adjustments for the afternoon session and I like how the car feels. We’re cautious that other teams will improve for Saturday but finishing in the top five is a nice feeling.”

Toro Rosso chief race engineer Jonathan Eddolls echoed Albon's comments about a "successful" day of practice sessions: 

“Overall, the team had a successful Thursday in Monte Carlo, given it was the first time here for Alex in F1 and with Daniil missing 2018.

“Both drivers got up to speed very quickly in FP1 on the Option tyre and the STR14 was looking competitive, even though the general grip was low and the balance not perfect.

“The warm-up on this tyre was not as expected, with both drivers finding it very difficult to get it working over the short run, particularly for Daniil. Both drivers managed to get the C4 working after several sustainable laps in the long run at the end of the session, although neither driver was completely happy with the car on this tyre.

“Daniil struggled with the car balance on the first run, so he aborted early to leave time to make the necessary setup changes for the second run – these changes helped but he still didn’t have as good a balance in the car as Alex had. Alex’s second run was very clean and this is reflected in his lap time, finishing the session in P5.

“In summary, the car is looking competitive here, as demonstrated by Alex, but there is work to do by the engineers tonight and tomorrow to give Daniil a car that suits him on Saturday. We are confident we will be able to make improvements and challenge in Qualifying!”