It’s a special weekend for theAlfa Romeowith an unpublished tricolor livery to pay homage to the new SUV coming out – the Tonale – but the first free sessions in Baku see Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou momentarily far from the top as regards the chronometric performances. 15th and 16th time for the two drivers of the Italian-Swiss team, who in any case do not lose optimism in view of both qualifying and the Azerbaijani race after being conditioned by some errors in their best laps, also due to a rather bumpy track and slippery compared to last season.
“We progressed quite well during the day, even if the start was a bit complicated, with the car’s grip and balance levels not exactly optimal. – commented Bottas – The track is a bit more bumpy than last year, but don’t worry: luckily we didn’t have any porpoising problems. We made several changes to the set-up during the day and in the end the car improved a lot. I’m sure there is still a lot of potential to unlock and I haven’t done many free laps, including the final one in FP2, where I was gaining a lot compared to my previous times but I blocked a tire and lost the lap. As usual, the midfield is very compact and they are convinced of being able to take a step forward and improve a lot. I am optimistic for qualifying and for the rest of the weekend ”.
“I spent a pleasant day: I like this track and I feel I have become familiar with the track quite quickly, especially compared to the experiences I had in Jeddah and Munich. – Zhou’s words – I enjoyed the qualifying simulation and made no mistakes: I’m happy with that, although obviously there are still some things to fine-tune together with the team. I am confident I can take a step forward for qualifying: the battle in midfield between the tenth and sixteenth is extremely close, so if we can find a few tenths we could gain a lot of positions on the grid. There are many factors at play, not least the big difference a good lap trail can make, but we know we can be fighting. We will do our best to succeed ”.
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