Will Stevens says it is encouraging for Manor that it could set times within 107% of the fastest lap on its first day of running.
Manor finally completed its first laps of 2015 during FP1 for the Malaysian Grand Prix, with both Stevens and Roberto Merhi putting mileage on the team’s adapted 2014 car. Using last year’s Ferrari power unit there were concerns Manor may struggle to qualify in the opening races but Stevens set a time comfortably within 107% during FP2 and is buoyed by the team’s starting point.
“It was good, today is basically our first day in the car,” Stevens said. “Everyone else’s first day in pre-season is ours today. As far as it went it ran as smoothly as possible and we got through everything we needed to. We managed to get a few laps under our belt and it was nice to see we’re inside 107% already.
“We’re only going to improve from where we are at the moment, so we’ll work away tonight and hopefully be in even better shape tomorrow.”
While insisting he had no expectations about where Manor would be in terms of pace, Stevens says he is delighted to know the car has the potential to qualify this weekend.
“Honestly I didn’t know what to expect coming here. We know that most of the other guys have made quite a big step forward, we know roughly what we’ve got so we needed to just get out and see what we had. So to already been inside by a second when for sure we’ve got a lot of improvement to do in ourselves then we should be fine come qualy.”
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