Sainz: The feeling is not the same as it was in the pre-season tests

      Carlos Sainz seems to be gradually adapting to the Williams car, and although Friday's training sessions in Bahrain are behind him, he turned out to be slightly faster than his teammate, Alex Elbon. And this is despite the fact that Carlos was working on the track only in the second session, as in the first his car was piloted by Luke Browning.

      Carlos Sainz (10th): "I only had one session, but I think we picked up speed very quickly and had a good run of short laps, but on the long one we had some difficulties with the balance of the car and the rubber. But in the evening we will analyze the results of Friday and try to figure everything out.

      The main conclusion that can be drawn after today is that due to the degradation of the rubber, the feeling of driving on this track is completely different from what it was during the pre-season tests. We have to adapt to a lot in order to be in good shape tomorrow."

      Alex Albon (11th): "I think we are not as competitive in the heat compared to the winter tests on the same track – maybe we have slipped back a bit. But we partly foresaw that we would have difficulties this weekend.

      Interestingly, our balance problems only show up on this track, and now we need to figure out how to make improvements. I am sure that we can do this, because in fact our car is much more efficient.

      First of all, we need to pay attention to the speed on the slow sections of the track. If we figure this out, we'll go faster right away. I think we will have the opportunity to compete for the finals of tomorrow's qualifiers. But we must admit that the Racing Bulls cars are very fast again, and Haas seems to be capable of good speed.

      We understand that the results will be very tight, but we are pleased that the car makes a good impression and will allow us to fight for a fairly high position."

      Luke Browning (13th in the first session): "The impressions are wonderful! Although, of course, after training in Formula 2, getting behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car was not an easy task. However, it was even more difficult to transfer back!

      I think we did a good job in the first session, I really enjoyed everything, and, of course, I am grateful to the team for the opportunity. This was only my second Formula 1 training session, but I also worked on the Monza tests last week. It's great that I was able to apply that experience so quickly in official training during the race weekend.

      I made a couple of mistakes, I locked the brakes a couple of times, but it's natural, but overall everything was good, and I'm already looking forward to the next time when I'll have the opportunity to get behind the wheel of this car again."