cond-longest track on the calendar.

With conditions varying dramatically between FP1 and FP2, the team had to carefully consider its run plan to make the most of the two sessions, but the first indications from the track are positive, and the engineers, as well as Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, will aim to make a further step forward overnight.

Valtteri Bottas: "It's good to be back on this track - it's always a fun layout to drive on, and completely different from what we had in Bahrain last week. The car felt rather good in FP1, I was feeling comfortable on track right from the start. We experimented a bit more for the second practice session, testing different setup configurations, and some of them didn't go in the right direction. Still, as a positive, we learned which way not to go, and the data gathered today will be useful as we work through it overnight with a view to qualifying."

Zhou Guanyu: "I had a good feeling in the car today, and we managed to go through our whole intended program to collect the data we needed. This track is always quite enjoyable and unique: I believe its layout should suit us better than Bahrain, to still be in the battle for the points. As a team, we're definitely making steps forward, and I hope we can achieve similar results as in Bahrain, if not better. While challenging the top five teams is difficult, our main competitors are undoubtedly the teams around us, and we'll be fighting against them for points this weekend. Tonight, we'll continue fine-tuning the car and its setup to be ready for an exciting qualifying tomorrow."

Check out our Thursday gallery from Jeddah here.