It was a more difficult session today although it was a shorter day for me, I had limiting running time as Ayumu was in the car for FP1. It took a few laps to get into it, the balance wasn't too bad, but we were struggling a lot with the grip. As a Team we had a bit of a different approach to our Friday than our competitors, but the gap is quite big at the moment. We have quite a bit of work to do also in the long run and we're hoping that tomorrow is more fun.

Today was a bit of learning, we ran different set-up across the cars to see what the performance looked like. But overall, I would say the second session was a bit messy for me, with being able to put it together. There were also some communication struggles on radio between my race engineer and me, that’s all just part of the learning process and understanding one another properly, it’s only the fifth session together since I jumped in the car. For now, there is some struggling, but at the same time a lot will come from cleaner communication. I think if we can clean up the communication then it’ll make operational things a lot smoother, warm-up, the switches etc. and that would bring lap times. Maybe Woody and I need to go out tonight and get to know each other, with my Japanese English and his Scottish English! It would be a fun night. It’s hard to tell where we are at the moment, I feel there is potential, but it has been hard to extract it. It wasn’t the finest Friday ever, I hope the rest of the weekend is better, I have to be better. I am still feeling optimistic and I am sure we will change a lot of things overnight.

It was a really great experience to get to drive the RB21 in Bahrain, a big thank you to the Team for the opportunity. It was a bit tricky with the session I had, we had an aero test at the beginning of the session, so I didn't do many laps today, but I was focused on trying to do my best and to not make many mistakes. Towards the end of the session, I was feeling more comfortable in the car and was able to provide more feedback on the radio. It has been really helpful to work with GP and the engineering team, to hear their feedback on my performance and to work with them. I had tested previously in the VCARB car, so it was great to have another opportunity to drive in an F1 car. It was overall a new and nice experience in the car and with the Team and will help prepare myself for hopefully more opportunities in the future.

We had a good FP2 today, especially after how hot the track was during FP1, where we were not able to gather any reliable information. FP2 made much more sense and we looked strong in one-lap pace. Generally, we had a good feeling in the car, but there’s still room for improvement, so a lot to look forward to for tomorrow. I’m optimistic, as I know I’m going to put the work in tonight. It’s not surprising that all the gaps are really close in the midfield; we’re in the mix and I know it’s going to be about details for tomorrow’s Qualifying.

FP2 was more tricky for us weirdly because of the track conditions in FP1 making it a difficult session. The balance in FP2 went away from us a little bit, but in general I think the car is in a good place, it's just fine tuning. Tomorrow we have a session in the day, which isn't going to help us for Quali, but we'll be taking what we can from this session ahead of then. I made a pretty big mistake in FP2 which dropped me down, so for all of us it's important to nail the lap, otherwise it's very costly here. Right now in Formula One, the difference between a really good lap and a bad lap can completely change your position so it puts pressure on us out on track.