REPORT: Positive Start to Canadian GP Weekend

We’re hard at work dissecting the data after what’s been one of our most encouraging Fridays of the season so far.

FP1 saw both drivers finish in the top three, with Alex Albon clocking a 1:13.232 to go P2 – just 0.039s off Max Verstappen’s session-best. Carlos Sainz was also firmly in the hunt, setting a 1:13.275 to end up 0.082s adrift of P1.

Despite a red flag interruption, we completed 59 laps in the opening hour – all on the Soft tyre – as we continued to build our understanding of the C6 compound.

FP2 kept the momentum going, with both drivers again towards the sharp end. Alex posted a 1:12.445 on Mediums to finish P4, while Carlos logged a 1:12.631 on Softs earlier in the session to secure P7.

Our duo split their time across both compounds, bringing our total lap count for the day to 132.

"Very positive day," Alex reflected. "We hit the ground running; we were maybe running a different programme to everyone else in FP1 but FP2 felt okay.

"The base car is strong, we’ve got a good package underneath us and Q3 is well within our targets tomorrow.

"However, we’ve still got work to do to improve the car and that’s good as it shows there’s a bigger envelope that we need to explore. At the same time because we are quick, we don’t want to change too much, so there is a balance to strike."

"Good feeling today," Carlos shared. "Being realistic, FP1 was a bit misleading in terms of our position on the time sheets, but in FP2 we were still fighting in the top 10, so we’re more or less where we expected to be.

"There is still more work to do ahead of tomorrow, but we seem to be in good form. We’ll focus on tyre strategy and continue building up the confidence around this circuit."