Scuderia Toro Rosso had a productive opening day of practice in Monaco, while learning a little more on how to get a better balance with the STR12.
Daniil Kvyat finished Free Practice 1 for the Monaco Grand Prix in sixth, ahead of team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr. in ninth. With both drivers reasonably happy with their performance, the team fine-tuned the cars a little bit for Free Practice 2, while running a slightly different tyre programme to the other teams. These changes gave both drivers an advantage in FP2, as Kvyat lead the session for some time, he couldn’t hold on until the end though and finished in fourth. Sainz also improved to set a fastest time of 1:13.400 to finish in fifth.
With this strong performance from both drivers, James Key, Technical Director, feels the team can try to optimise the car as best they can by looking at the data.
“Quite a productive day today,” said Key. “Since our problems in Barcelona, where we had a number of updates, we’ve learned a little more on how to get a better balance with the car.
“Both drivers seemed to be reasonably happy in FP1, so it was a case of fine-tuning the car a little bit for FP2. We ran a slightly different tyre programme to other teams, concentrating on our own work, car set-up and understanding.
“During the afternoon session we made reasonable progress and, even if there are still some issues to resolve, the session went well. We will now be working hard overnight and tomorrow to look at the data and optimise the car as best we can.”
