Frédéric Vervisch: “It has been a good session, although it doesn’t mean much: it is just the start of the weekend and the track is new for most of drivers and teams. Also, I was on new tyres, contrarily to the majority of competitors, but still, we are very happy, because the car I was driving was not my actual car. It happened that my usual car is still blocked at customs. Luckily, a spare car was embarked too for the Asian tour, and this is the one I am driving this weekend. It had to be re-prepared completely in a very short time, and doesn’t have the latest specs, but the boys have done an excellent job.”

Denis Dupont: “I am very happy: I had a quicker adaptation to the track than expected. I never raced here and only did some simulation work on a relatively old programme, but I quite like the track. Sand is a new element to me and as soon as you try something different you realize it is there! My lap times were quite good, and I even was on a faster one, but I stumbled on a slowing Honda. I was on slightly used tyres, and clearly, given that my Zhejiang weekend was shortened by events, I still have some tyres left from the previous event.”

Gabriele Tarquini: “I raced here in 2004 last time, so I don’t remember much of the track. What I can say is that I really like it. It is very fun to drive. The car worked well, but really we are only working on race set-up and pace, as we will not be fighting for Q2, because of the ‘transparent’ status of our cars.”