Report: Team reflect on a trouble-free first day in Montreal

The team recorded a total of 117 laps on the first day of Formula One running back at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in just over three years.

Nicholas Latifi, competing in his first-ever home Grand Prix weekend, notched up 59 of those tours around Montreal’s Île Notre-Dame, recording his best time of the day in FP2. His 1:16.509 placed him P19, the same position as in FP1 despite being seven-tenths quicker.

“In general, it was a trouble-free first day,” said the Montreal-born racer, adding: “Obviously a very special feeling to start the weekend at my home Grand Prix and drive in front of the home fans.

“I honestly felt a lot of support in the build-up to this and it’s carried over to this weekend. On the track, it's been difficult with the pace of the car.

“We’re lacking performance and I still need to try and extract a bit more. So, we’ll keep working overnight to try and make some gains for Saturday.

Alex Albon had finished the early-afternoon session in P13 thanks to a 1:16.308 before he shaved a further two-tenths off of that time in FP2, which placed him in P18.

Our No23 knows there’s plenty to go over during the night, as we look for even more time ahead of qualifying.

“[It was} not a bad day actually for us – we did a good job and we do have a bit to find. I think in FP2 we possibly went the wrong way, but we’ve got some good data to look at and we’ll find a good place in between the two cars that we had but we’ll see.”

Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance, spoke of how the team had to shake up their session plans owing to the threat of heavy rain, which ultimately arrived minutes after the climax of FP2.

“We had some concerns over the weather forecast for FP2 and so changed the plan for FP1 to ensure that we completed the most important race preparation.

“However, with FP2 ultimately remaining dry, we were able to do the tests that we postponed in the morning and explore some of the finer setup options.

“We didn’t improve the pace as much as we hoped in FP2, but we have some good directions to work on overnight.

“Overall, we’ve had a productive day and have started to tune the car to the characteristics of Montreal, and especially the bumps, which are quite severe at T8.”