“Jenson has obviously done a good job today and is looking extremely competitive. Rubens has some braking problems that we have had to live with during the session because there wasn't sufficient time to fix them. If we can resolve this issue then there is no reason to think that both cars can't be quite closely-matched during the rest of the weekend.

“I think we have done a good job here in Valencia so far, but credit should also go to the rest of the team for all the hard work that was achieved off-track during the three-week break. The progress we have made with honing our recent developments appears to be paying dividends.”

Ron Dennis [McLaren – team principal]:

“It's always an interesting engineering challenge whenever you arrive at a new circuit – and today in Valencia was no exception. We spent two very productive sessions concentrating on tyre choice, while running appropriate fuel levels. Lewis and Heikki also performed faultlessly, allowing us to collect plenty of valuable data which we will go through tonight.”

Norbert Haug [Mercedes-Benz Motorsport – vice-president]:

“A great circuit, and a first-class job by the organisers and especially Bernie for the maiden race here in Valencia. For Lewis and Heikki and our team it was a good start to the weekend, with fast and consistent lap times in race trim.

“We stayed clear of the walls, which is very important here; you definitely should not lose valuable time on a new track because your car is in pieces and needs to be put together in the pits, while your competitors are learning for qualifying and the race.”

Dieter Gass [Toyota – chief race and test engineer]:

“The most important thing when you go to a new track is to make it through your programme without any technical problems, which was the case today. On the first day at a new track we amend our usual plan.

“Today we carried out more long runs, both at the start of P1 to learn the circuit and at the end of P2 to help judge the tyre behaviour, because we have no reference here. Apart from that, you aim to find the balance and the right downforce levels.

“There doesn't seem to be a lot of grip around, and it didn't improve as massively as we would have expected. Still, we're quite happy with where we are with Timo, but Jarno is struggling a bit with an inconsistent balance. We will have to look into that and fix it for tomorrow.”

Willy Rampf [BMW-Sauber – technical director]:

“Although this is a new track, there were no surprises for us as regards the car's set-up. The circuit is as we expected, and we were well-prepared. As usual on Friday we concentrated on comparing the tyres and race preparation. We were able to complete the programme without any technical problems.

“Because we cannot use any previous information to refer to for this new track, we shall now analyse all the data. We shall pay special attention to comparing the sector times so we can make the right set-up changes for the rest of the weekend.”

Mike Gascoyne [Force India F1 – chief technical officer]: