It has been a challenge but it has been the same for everyone, the circuit is evolving quickly and of course the teams have only had one session to sort the cars out.
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Wind, sand and a brand-new surface: this combination made it very difficult to decipher the first day at the Lusail circuit.
Unfortunately, today's result was not too much of a surprise as we knew this track would not suit our car that well.
Understanding the tyres will be difficult for the race, so we will do all we can to maximise our opportunities.
We've got another qualifying to get through tomorrow, but it's good that the drivers are happy with the cars.
We have the sprint sessions tomorrow and it will be fascinating to see how each team chooses to approach these in terms of tyre usage and run plans.
Alpine returned to the top ten with both cars as Pierre Gasly qualified seventh and Esteban Ocon eighth for Sunday's Qatar Grand Prix.
After a relatively good FP1 with Nico we were hoping for more than what got out of qualifying.
As expected the shocks come thick and fast in Qatar as Perez and Sainz fail to make it out of Q2 and both McLaren drivers have their best Q3 times deleted.
Lack of grip makes for tricky conditions at Lusail, as opening practice suggests that surprises will be forthcoming in subsequent sessions.