Yuki Tsunoda hailed a strong opening day for Visa Cash App RB at Marina Bay, with the Japanese charger and teammate Daniel Ricciardo surprisingly mixing it with the front-runners in Friday’s sessions.
On a track that takes no prisoners, both drivers enjoyed clean sessions and were very satisfied with the level of performance of RB’s package which they managed to improve between FP1 and FP2.
Tsunoda was classified 5th in first practice but ended his day 4th, while Ricciardo followed suit, progressing from P7 to P6 thanks to a few beneficial changes that improved their VCARB 01’s balance.
“It was a positive day and overall, I’m feeling good,” said Tsunoda. “Obviously, it’s just free practice and I’m sure some of our competitors will pick up the pace from tomorrow onwards, but at the same time, there’s more to come on our side with some improvements, so we need to stay sharp.
“I’m definitely looking forward to qualifying more than usual, where we’ll have the chance to put it all together.”
Ricciardo noted the very tight spread that separated those positioned at the sharp end of the field – the norm this season. And like his teammate, the Aussie suggested that there was more performance to unlock by fine-tuning his car’s set-up.
“It was really close, I think four of us finished within two hundredths of a second,” he said
“We’re happy with the car. There’s always some fine tuning to do, but it was nice to see ourselves in good points scoring positions today.
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“We have a decent package here and look competitive. I had a lot of grip today, and the circuit was really fun to drive. Hopefully our pace remains tomorrow going into qualifying.”
RB racing director Alan Permane pointed to single-lap pace as an area that required more attention.
“We made a few minor changes prior to FP2 to tweak the balance and again, the drivers were pretty satisfied,” he said.
“We still have a bit of work to do on single lap pace, but we know which direction to go in and we will make some final adjustments tomorrow before the final hour of practice to ensure the cars are in the best possible shape for Saturday night’s qualifying."
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