Pastor Maldonado rated Monte Carlo among his favourite Formula One circuits after his latest experience of it on Thursday. The Venezuelan was a competitive sixth in FP1 before falling to fourteenth in the afternoon but despite that, feels the team are moving forward and are in for a better weekend than the previous five in 2013.
“This is one of my favourite circuits on the Formula One calendar. It’s always great to drive here. The practice session today was productive and we feel we have made some progress. The set-up in the two sessions was slightly different and it felt like things were slightly better in FP1. We will analyse everything tonight and tomorrow and choose the best configuration for the weekend ahead.”
Teammate Valtteri Bottas was only eighteenth but also revelled in the task of threading his car between the barriers and hopes to be more competitive come qualifying.
“The track here in Monaco is very challenging, but brilliant to drive. I was learning more and more with every lap and I feel like I’m really getting up to speed in my first time driving here. We have a lot of data from today that we will look at in order to find the correct balance for the car; hopefully we can look at everything and make a step forward for Saturday’s qualifying session.”
