“We had a good test at Paul Ricard last week, and it appears that our relative performance is back to where we were at Barcelona. It is never wise to be over-confident at Monaco, though, as there are so many variables affecting the race outcome.
“From a performance point-of-view, we are hopeful of getting into the points on merit. There is a chance of rain on Saturday and Sunday, which at this track amounts to a big roll of the dice. We will be looking to take advantage of any opportunity to move further up the field.”
Dieter Gass [Toyota – chief engineer race and test]:
“As usual in Monaco, that was not an easy day. Jarno's first session was cut short because he made contact with the wall late on. Then in the afternoon we had a problem with the floor that we had to fix, so his running time was further disrupted.
“Timo had a trouble-free day and he was able to run smoothly through his programme. The problem here is that with the circuit evolving so much, you have to take a step back and analyse the data.
“Now we have plenty of time tomorrow to come up with the best set-up for Saturday. With rain forecast for later in the weekend, the weather could still play a major part in proceedings.”
Mike Gascoyne [Force India F1 – chief technical officer]:
“A reasonably good day, although both drivers had problems on their last runs on new tyres in the last session this afternoon. Giancarlo had a hydraulic problem that meant he couldn't run at the end, and Adrian was on a much quicker lap but unfortunately just clipped the barrier at the last corner.
“These things can happen, though, especially in Monaco. We did, however, get through a large amount of running and worked through the tyre programme. Overall the cars look quite competitive here, so I am sure there is more to come over the weekend.”
Hirohide Hamashima [Bridgestone – director of motorsport tyre development]:
“The first day of running at Monaco is always difficult for data collection, as the track surface changes very quickly as the road gets cleaned and rubber goes down. Most laps took place on the soft compound today and we did see more graining than predicted, however this should improve as the track surface gets better.
