REPORT: Two race distances completed in Thursday Practice

The team are reflecting on a consistent day of running at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit as two incident-free practice sessions allowed Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant the chance to complete a race distance each.

In the sunshine on the Red Sea coast, FP1 saw the team lay their foundations upon which to build up their weekend.

Alex recorded 26 laps, with a best time of 1:30.747 to place him P10, whilst Logan notched one more tour than his teammate, ending the hour in P14 thanks to a 1:30.966.

After night had fallen on the Corniche, we were treated to our one and only practice session in representative conditions.

Logan fell foul of traffic on one of his early soft tyre push laps and had to be alert through the flat-out T10/11 section to avoid the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton.

Our American racer would go on to record 27 laps for a second successive session, ending the day in P16 following a 1:29.934.

Alex had less trouble with traffic during his quali simulations and was P14 when the chequered flag fell on the first day of running, with a quickest lap of 1:29.789.

"The car felt good and from the moment we hit the track, it’s been in a good place," Alex shared at the end of Thursday.

"FP2, we made some changes and most of them worked, with only a couple of exceptions, so we’ll work to find a sweet spot for tomorrow.

"The race runs look sensible, so I’m pretty optimistic. We’ve got a good car and like always, it’s going to be close but I’m enjoying it out there, it’s a fun circuit.

"We’re going to aim for the top of the midfield and hope to take advantage of any opportunities we can."

Logan was similarly full of optimism when we caught up with him, adding: "It’s been a good day for the team, and I think we’re definitely moving in the right direction.

"The circuit here in Jeddah is hugely different to Bahrain, so it’s like re-learning the car to an extent, but it’s been great since we put it on the ground this morning.

"We’ve made some small changes to get the car closer to the perfect window, and I’ve been building up each session and feeling more comfortable with every lap. I'm looking forward to FP3 and Qualifying tomorrow!"

Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance, wraps up our reaction by sharing: "We had a solid day. There were no issues and both drivers got a sight of the circuit across a range of conditions and tyre compounds.

"Both are reasonably happy with their setups and have identified some areas that we can work on overnight.

"As we expected, the tyres are behaving noticeably differently on the smooth Jeddah circuit than they did on the much rougher track in Bahrain.

"We anticipated many of these differences but there is still scope to get more out of the tyres tomorrow and on Saturday. We will be focussing on this tonight and into FP3.

"Once again, the midfield is very tight, and we’ll be looking to do everything that we can to make sure that we are firmly in that fight."