Fernando Alonso: I'm fairly optimistic.

      On Friday Fernando Alonso was only beaten in terms of pace by Lando Norris, the McLaren driver, and that suggests the Aston Martin is working quite effectively at the Dutch Grand Prix circuit. However, this can so far only be judged from the two-time world champion's running, because his team-mate heavily damaged his car shortly after the start of the second session.

      Fernando Alonso (2nd): "Of course, I'm quite optimistic heading into the main days of the weekend — more optimistic than after some other Fridays this season. In Hungary we performed quite confidently, but we can also have a decent pace in Zandvoort.

      Clearly, it's only practice, but it's still nice to see that we climbed almost to the very top of today's timing. Let's see what we'll be capable of tomorrow. That said, McLaren is out of our reach in any case; that's beyond our capabilities. But it seems Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull are not much faster than us, and we'll try to battle with them.

      Undoubtedly, these results show that the tools we have at the team's base are now working as they should. Unfortunately, this year we are not able to fight the top teams, so the main task for the rest of the season is to get to grips as best as possible with all the work processes at the Silverstone base and try to use all that information effectively on track.

      In any case, over the past two months all the technical updates we've brought to races have been working as we expected. And that gives confidence in the preparation process for next season."

      Lance Stroll (18th): "In Turn 3 I locked the brakes a little, after which I was just a passenger. But that happens. Although, of course, during the day our pace was at a fairly competitive level. Let's see how tomorrow goes. I wouldn't rule out that in qualifying we'll be able to fight for positions in the first two rows."