Positive End to Friday Running After Frustrating First Session

George Russell

It [FP2] was OK. We expected McLaren to be a step ahead here and we saw that today. They were a strongest in the middle sector where the tyres are overheating, so we know we’ve got a bit of work to do if we want to challenge them. I think we’re in position fighting for the next best behind them in all honesty.

I think it’s going to be close between ourselves, Ferrari and the Red Bulls. It is hard to say with confidence, but we saw both teams performing strongly at different points throughout the day. I definitely feel, unlike the last three races, this won’t be dominated by Qualifying – this weekend is going to be dominated by race pace and by tyre degradation. Of course, you want to have a good Qualifying, but the race is where the action will be.

Kimi Antonelli

FP1 was obviously quote short. Unfortunately, I had a water leak on the car, so I had to stop and couldn’t drive for the rest of the session. That was a shame because you don’t want to miss out on laps. FP2 was quite positive though. The single lap was quite good, even though I made a big mistake in sector one, and overall I felt pretty good in the car. The long run was quite tricky – completely different to what we had in testing, so I had to adapt, but overall, despite the issue in FP1, it was a positive day.

Being at a track that I know definitely helped get me up to speed more quickly today. I felt straightaway in FP2 that I had confidence with the car and despite the track being different to when I’ve driven here previously, I had the confidence to be able to push. McLaren still seem to be the favourite but I think we should be fighting for the top five in tomorrow’s Qualifying. We can definitely take the fight to the Red Bulls and Ferrari, but let’s wait and see what Saturday brings.

Fred Vesti

What a day it’s been. Yesterday was awesome to be back in the paddock and working with the team preparing for the day today. I was really happy to be back in the car – it felt really good to challenge myself and to push to the limit. Obviously spending so much time in the simulator, it’s just really nice to get time in the real car, learning more about the tyres and the W16 itself.

As a racing driver, feeling that energy through the body is something you miss a lot when you’re in the simulator. I want to thank Mercedes for giving me the opportunity again to run in FP1 and continue my journey. My motivation is very high and I will continue to push. For now, it’s back to Brackley, back to work with the team there and correlate what I’ve learned today in the simulator. We will continue pushing towards even better results and race wins.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

We had Fred Vesti in the car for FP1 and he did a great job for us. The programme was designed for our learning rather than setting headline times but when we correct for the Medium compound and fuel, the times were impressive considering that it was his first time in the W16. Unfortunately, we lost Kimi's car early in the session with a water leak. We were able to quickly identify the issue and resolved it for FP2 although it was a shame to lose the running.

The cooler conditions of the evening session meant the grip was higher and the car was more together. We managed a good programme with both drivers, electing to do two Soft tyres in the conditions more relevant to Qualifying. There's plenty still to work on. The track is much hotter than the test so keeping tyres in the window is more difficult both on single lap and long run but it's a decent baseline to work from and the car is at least quite consistent in its behaviour around the lap. As we've seen at the recent races, it's quite tight. McLaren look strong here but we expected that after testing but hopefully we can get ourselves into the podium fight.

FP1 Result

FP2 Result