Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN returned from the summer break with a busy day of practice in Spa-Francorchamps. Despite a technical issue stopping Valtteri Bottas in FP1, the team had a solid start, with Zhou Guanyu just outside the top ten in both sessions.

Valtteri Bottas: "I was satisfied with the balance of the car, even though we obviously missed out on a session and we had to play catch-up in the rest of the day. The main limitation today was the grip levels, especially when I switched to the hard tyres, which are a big step from the soft: it's nothing to worry about, though, I fully expect to figure it out tomorrow with a few more laps. We had a hydraulic leak in the first session and rain compromised the running towards the end of FP2, so hopefully we can get a bit more track time in the final practice session. We need a clean day to finish what we couldn't do today."

Zhou Guanyu: "It felt good to get back in the cockpit after the summer break; the car felt quite ok on this low-downforce track. Everything was working well today and I felt pretty good in the car: as always, though, there are a few bits that need to be fixed ahead of tomorrow, but I feel confident so far at the end of day one. We tried different setups between FP1 and FP2, as the day was about figuring out the best and biggest changes on the car, to have it at its best for quali tomorrow and for the race on Sunday. Everything seemed to go quite smoothly today, so hopefully this weekend we can take a step up from the past few races and get back to our previous form."

Check out our Friday gallery from Spa here.