RB
Lawson was the first driver to complain about the lack of grip, the Kiwi making his debut at this circuit and immediately finding the going tough. Neither RB driver made much of an impression in FP1, but Tsunoda in particular jumped up the order in FP2. That was important, given both Haas and Alpine look strong here. RB have fallen back in the constructors’ standings, but all is not lost – especially at a street circuit where anything could happen.
WATCH: Ride onboard as Hamilton sets the fastest Thursday lap in Las Vegas
Liam Lawson – FP1: 1:38.730, P20; FP2: 1:35.671, P15
“A challenging day today, honestly. We started the day really slow and then we made a step up and learnt quite a lot. It’s obviously extremely cold and the track earlier was really slippery and dirty, so you’re just waiting for it to build up. In FP2 the track was colder but better, and we learnt things that will help us tomorrow. We have the knowledge from today to improve, so hopefully we can be punching on the back end of the top 10, but it depends on how everyone else steps up as well.”
Yuki Tsunoda – FP1: 1:38.574, P19; FP2: 1:34.997, P10
“Overall, it was a positive first day here in Las Vegas. We struggled a bit in FP1, but then we managed to turn it around later in FP2. It’s a positive sign, as usually it’s not an easy thing to do, and I think we’ve found the direction to follow for the rest of the weekend. We need some more finetuning for tomorrow to find a couple of tenths to try and get into Q3. The long runs also seemed positive, even if I think it depends a lot on how we’re able to manage the tyres, given the tricky and unusual conditions we have here, but will be important to find the right balance in terms of car setup between short and long runs.”
Alan Permane, Racing Director
“Honestly, this was quite a tough day for us. We didn’t get the best out of the cars in FP1, but we learned a lot from it and made several changes between the sessions. Both drivers were much happier in the second session, although not completely satisfied. This has given us a clear indication of the direction we have to go in overnight and I believe we can make a similar step from FP2 to FP3 as we did between today’s sessions. That should give us a much more competitive car.”
