Tsunoda: surprisingly easy to warm up the tyres

Visa Cash RB drivers Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo were delighted with the performance of their cars, claiming that their car is performing well on the narrow streets of Monaco.

Following a strong showing in Imola, the Visa RB team was eager to carry over its impressive form to Monaco. Having finished in P10 in Italy, Yuki Tsunoda sounded a positive note after the opening day in Monaco.

The Japanese driver was particularly impressed by the way its VCARB01 warmed up the tyres for the qualifying simulation lap which could be decisive in Saturday’s all-important qualifying session.

"It was another positive first day for us. Straight from FP1, I felt positive. There are still some little things we can improve on to extract the performance but that’s what practice is for.

"For example, I think we can improve in general in the braking phase because we had a couple slides there and obviously with this C5 tyre, it’s very sensitive.

"Other than that, warmup is good and everything is positive, so it’s just finetuning the little things that always count, especially here in Monaco. The general pace is there and I’m looking forward to improving another step tomorrow, maximising it for qualifying," said the Sagamihara-born driver.

His team-mate Daniel Ricciardo displayed strong pace in the opening session, but he was unable to find the same improvement as the majority of the field, and finished down in P16 in the second practice.

Speaking of his day, Ricciardo is sure that he can unlock more performance come the qualifying session: “I feel good being back here in Monaco, it’s just nice and enjoyable driving an F1 car around this track again.

"I’m happy with the work we did today, I think that we have some pace in hand, and probably the timesheets didn’t show the full picture, so hopefully putting on some softs tomorrow we can be fighting inside the top 10.

"I feel like I got myself into a better rhythm towards the end of FP2 and was happy with the last lap I did on the mediums. Considering everything, I think we’re in a good place and now it’s a matter of putting the setup together.

"I’m really looking forward to tomorrow; I’m excited because the qualifying day in Monaco is probably one of the coolest days of the whole Formula 1 calendar," added the Perth-born driver.

"It meant we took a soft tyre in the morning and that didn’t leave us with a soft this afternoon, so we’re a little further down the timesheet than we would’ve been had we run the softs.

"A few problems with ride of both cars in the morning session were hurting the drivers, especially in braking in Turn 1 where it’s a little bumpy and in the chicane after the tunnel, but some good changes across both cars in between sessions saw an improvement. Both drivers report they were happier with the car in the afternoon and we look forward to FP3 and qualifying tomorrow.”