“I have nothing against street circuits; quite the opposite in fact. We were struggling to find the right direction to go in. By the end of the second session we made a step forward, but it is not yet enough.”
Ron Dennis [McLaren – team principal]:
“Two uneventful practice sessions, which is always the best start to a Monaco Grand Prix weekend. We made good progress with both cars and evaluated the tyre options. There is still some work to do, but we are looking forward to the weekend and will continue to work hard to add another victory to our 14 Monaco race wins. However, it's not going to be easy as our competition is strong, and the weather might make things more unpredictable.”
Norbert Haug [Mercedes-Benz Motorsport – vice-president]:
“A very good first practice day for us, and a good job from all our team members. Lewis obviously feels at home in-between the guardrails; he was fast and didn't put a foot wrong today. Heikki's lap times looked good and consistent too.
“In Saturday's qualifying we now want to build on the basis we achieved today. The weather forecast predicts rain for the race on Sunday, but on Saturday there is a chance for a dry qualifying.”
Sam Michael [Williams-Toyota – technical director]:
“It was a reasonably productive day for the team. Both drivers completed their set programmes, and it was good to get through both sessions without any incidents. The weekend is still young, so the drivers need to keep their concentration up around this track.
“In terms of tyre choice, it's pretty clear which one is faster. In Monaco, we have an extra day in comparison to the normal schedule because there's no running on Friday, so we have plenty of time to prepare the cars for qualifying and the race.”
Stefano Domenicali [Ferrari – team principal]:
“These three hours on-track can be described as pretty useful. We gathered a lot of data, which we now have to analyse to try and be as well-prepared as possible for qualifying and Sunday's race. In particular, we have to try and improve our performance on the first lap, especially with the softer tyre, an aspect with which we struggled a bit today compared to our main rivals.
