Mexican GP: Top 10 quotes after Friday free practice

Sebastian Vettel goes fastest for Ferrari during free practice using supersoft tyre: close to 2015 pole

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1 W07 Hybrid

Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG F1 W07 Hybrid

Nico Hulkenberg, Sahara Force India F1 VJM09

Carlos Sainz Jr., Scuderia Toro Rosso STR11

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval
1	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Ferrari	47	1'19.790
Overall it was a good day: the car seems to work, not only judging from the result but also as an overall feeling. The pace was there not only for one lap, but for all the laps we have completed. Also, we were always ahead of schedule leaving the garage, which is not always the case. For sure it is nice to be first in the time sheets, but this doesn't mean anything on Friday. If we are in the same position tomorrow afternoon, then we can be happy. Anyway, I felt that I was in Mexico city, not on the race track, with all the traffic! I think everybody was fighting with the same problems, trying to make the tires last, especially the Supersofts. I didn't have successive laps because I had so much traffic, but overall the pace was good, which is the most important thing. I think we can still improve for tomorrow and go from there.
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	Mercedes	37	1'19.794	0.004	0.004
“It's great to be back here in Mexico. The support we've had here already is amazing - and it's only Friday! There's so much energy and enthusiasm for the sport here, which is great to see. It's been a solid day in terms of our programme for the weekend. The cars are obviously faster but lap times are pretty strong already. The track is feeling better than it did last year and I feel a lot more comfortable in the car than I did the first time we came to this circuit, so hopefully I can carry that through the rest of the weekend.”
3	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	Mercedes	46	1'20.225	0.435	0.431
“It was an unusual day out there with the low temperatures and a very green track. So, it's been a bit of a steep learning curve to understand what to do with the tyres - how to get the best out of them for one lap and also for the long runs. We really learned a lot today and it's not been a bad start overall but we have a lot of homework to do tonight. The car was feeling okay on the medium tyre but even there we need to make some progress to understand where we can find some performance. Ferrari seemed very quick here today, so they will be a big threat. Let's see how tomorrow goes. It feels great to be back in Mexico. The fans are outstanding here. Already on Friday it's really packed out there in the stands, which is awesome.”
4	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Ferrari	37	1'20.259	0.469	0.034
Overall it was pretty ok today, but it's still early to know where we are and how's going to be. I had some understeer, mainly in the afternoon, with new tires on it was a bit tricky, but it's still the first day of practice. Now we have to concentrate and work on a few things as we normally do after the Friday's session and hopefully tomorrow, on new tires, we can push a bit more.
5	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	TAG	43	1'20.448	0.658	0.189
“It’s really difficult to find the right set-up with these conditions, when there is low grip you have a bit of under-steer and also a bit of over-steer so setting the car up is tricky. I think we improved from the morning but there is still some progress to make so we’ll still prepare for a pretty low-grip track tomorrow and try to improve the balance. I think it will get better, I expected the grip to be higher after a year but it was still very slippery. By Sunday the last half of the race will be better but I think we’ll fight the balance from now until the end, trying to get comfortable with a slick-feeling track. The supersoft today wasn’t a great tyre for the long runs as it wasn’t lasting. I don’t know how the others got on but I believe everyone has had a few problems with that compound so it’ll be interesting in qualifying tomorrow. We might see a mixed bag again.”
6	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	Mercedes	43	1'20.574	0.784	0.126
“The main focus on Friday is to complete your programme without issues, and from this perspective we had a good day. Most of the challenges we are facing are the same as last year – the altitude makes a big difference to the feel of the car with a loss of downforce – so we need to adapt to the conditions to find the ideal balance for the car. The rest of the day was quite standard, mostly learning about the tyre compounds, and I feel we did a good job with it. The morning session didn’t tell us much: the track was very cold and very dirty, so getting good information was difficult. We were able to assess the tyres in the afternoon and there wasn’t any particular surprise. In terms of car balance, we have made a good start but I am not completely happy yet: there is still a good margin for improvement and I hope we can dial our car in to find it overnight.”
7	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	TAG	42	1'20.619	0.829	0.045
“It was not ideal to miss a lot of the first practice session because of my brakes overheating, but we did some good work on the car in the second session which was positive. The brake issue was from pushing a bit hard on the in lap, therefore the temperatures were higher than usual. Due to the time I missed this morning I am still not completely happy with the set-up of the car over a short distance, but I think we have found a good long run pace for now. It was a bit tricky out there on supersofts but the car felt especially good on the medium compound, which I think is a good sign for race day. I think we can be competitive on Sunday as I was still making set-up changes towards the end of the second session, they are starting to come together now so I can improve from here. The make-up is off today, so it’s game face for the rest of the weekend.”
8	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	Mercedes	41	1'20.629	0.839	0.010
“I think it was a good day for us. We definitely still have a lot of work to do with the balance; the track was obviously improving a lot so the feeling of the car gets better and better with every single lap. The long runs seemed to be competitive with the supersoft and the medium, so hopefully we’re looking at a good weekend ahead for us. We still need to make sure that we work hard tonight to make the changes we need to get more performance.”
9	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso	Ferrari	46	1'20.974	1.184	0.345
“I’d say it’s been an interesting Friday. In particular, with the supersoft tyre being introduced here this year and the fact that the track temperatures have been super low today, I think it’s been a very challenging day – not only for us but for the whole grid. Hopefully this will create some opportunities for us on Sunday. At the moment we’ve performed well – inside the top ten – but we can’t forget that it’s only Friday, we know that things can change quickly on Saturdays. The good thing is that we’ve started the weekend positively and we will remain calm, work hard, extract the maximum out of the car and see where we end up!”
10	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	Honda	25	1'21.003	1.213	0.029
“It has been a demanding day for everyone, with a very dirty and slippery track, like last year. In the first session, we tried a few things on the car, then in the second session we tested different tyre compounds, but the degradation was quite significant. The situation will surely improve tomorrow and on Sunday, when the track will clean up and we will have much more grip. At the end of the second session we saw an anomaly in the braking system so we stopped, as a precaution, to do some checks. Tomorrow we’ll be working more on finding performance, but, even so, making it into Q3 may not be easy.”