The Scuderia Toro Rosso team had a very strong start to their Monaco Grand Prix weekend by finishing fourth and fifth fastest in the second and final free practice session on day one of action.
Since their problems last time out in Barcelona, where they had introduced a number of updates and they learned a little more on how to get a better balance with the car, as Thursday's sessions proved.
“During the afternoon session we made reasonable progress and, even if there are still some issues to resolve, the session went well,” said James Key, the team's technical director. “We will now be working hard overnight and tomorrow to look at the data and optimise the car as best we can.”
Daniil Kvyat, who finished sixth in the opening 90 minute session, using the supersoft rubber while all those around him were on the ultrasoft, moved up to fourth in the second session and he was pleased with the day's work.
“A productive Friday,” he said. “We did many laps today and they were all of good quality. We now have a lot of useful data to analyse before Saturday. The good news is that I'm happy with the balance of the car and we already look quite competitive. We now need to maintain this and get the car ready for qualifying and the race.”
Teammate Carlos Sainz finished close behind in P5 after completing 43 laps around the narrow streets of the Principality…
“I think that we did what we needed to do on a Thursday in Monaco, building the speed up little by little and trying different configurations to give myself confidence with the car,” he said. “After today's two practice sessions it's safe to say that we're quite happy with everything. Obviously, from Thursday to Saturday a lot of things could change so we can't let ourselves get carried away with today's result, but it's definitely a good starting point! I'm looking forward to the rest of the weekend!”
