A tough Abu Dhabi weekend is likely to be setting up at the Woking’s team garages: both cars missed their usual spots just behind the top teams. The ‘best of the rest’ has been the nickname absolutely “glued” constantly throughout this maiden season, to the Bruce’s squad; after years of unsurmountable obstacles being faced, 2019 will be remembered for the revenge year of Zak Brown entourage.

More than 2 and half seconds separated Lando Norris to the top of the timesheet this morning, while Carlos Sainz retained the gap to 1.5 in the afternoon: but still some slots offered to Haas, Racing Point, Alfa Romeo and Toro Rosso between the top three teams and the noses of the two MCL34.

Here are the main talking points from Friday at Yas Marina.

Sainz covered exactly 55 laps (as his race number) during the day; the confidence never abandoned the Spaniard, as his words proved:

“A decent Friday in terms of running but obviously just a bit outside the top 10, which is not ideal. The field seems to have tightened even more this weekend and the battle to lead the midfield tomorrow will be tough. I’m confident we know where to look for those extra tenths and hopefully we can take the necessary steps to qualify close to the top teams”.

Norris was more incisive when stating that the day didn’t turned up as he wanted; extra work is required standing at the expressions of the Briton:

“A difficult day. We’re not where we want to be in terms of the pace of the car. We do have positives concerning the car but also some weaknesses. We just need to work on those then I think we should be looking better for tomorrow. Qualifying is going to be very close as usual, no matter what. We just need to make sure we extract every little bit”.