Mercedes
There were no obvious reliability concerns for Mercedes in FP1, but neither driver troubled the top spots on the leaderboard. What they did do was push each other close, Antonelli winding up just 0.005s behind his more experienced team mate. In the second session though, Mercedes unleashed some more pace. Both drivers spent time at the top, with Antonelli winding up pipping Russell by a tenth. Although Piastri was fastest overall, P2 and P3 is a good return for the Silver Arrows.
But Russell had one moment, where he clipped Lindblad’s Racing Bulls car trying to squeeze into the fast lane in the pits. The stewards investigated the incident, and handed Russell a reprimand.
George Russell – FP1: 1:21.371, P7; FP2: 1:20.049, P3
“We didn’t have the smoothest first Friday of the season. FP1 was a tough session where we were struggling to optimise our battery harvesting and deployment. That demanded most of our attention and we therefore couldn’t get stuck into our set-up work until much later in the hour. When we did, the car had a lot of understeer, and we also didn’t have the time to put together a long run.
“Thankfully, we made a positive step for FP2 and had a much better session. The car felt more put together and we completed a good amount of single lap and long run work. That puts us in a decent position for the rest of the weekend. The front of the field looks very competitive and we will have to take another step overnight if we are to be in the fight for pole position. Let’s see what we can do.”
Kimi Antonelli – FP1: 1:21.376, P8; FP2: 1:19.943, P2
“It was a difficult start to our day in FP1, where we had to focus predominantly on improving our battery deployment. That left less time to work on set-up, and the car balance didn’t feel fantastic with lots of understeer. We worked hard between the sessions though and enjoyed a much stronger FP2.
“I am looking forward to the rest of the weekend. We are hopefully in the mix at the front, but everyone is learning so much with every session and every lap that what is true now, might not be true tomorrow. We will keep pushing hard to make sure we get the most out of the car and see where that leaves us tomorrow in Qualifying and Sunday for the Grand Prix.”
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director
“Overall the day finished in a decent place, but our first session was very messy. We had a few configuration issues on the power unit side that took a couple of runs to unpick. On top of that, the balance of the car wasn’t great for either driver. That affects our cornering speeds, which in turn impacts the deployment.
“We had a good recovery ahead of FP2; the power unit was working as intended and the car was responding a lot better after a few set-up changes. Having finished the morning somewhat on the back foot, we were able to put together a solid programme with decent long runs from both drivers. That’s given us good information ahead of the race on Sunday but there are still a few areas that we need to make progress on overnight. We’re into that work already and hopefully can find a bit more pace to deliver a strong team result in Qualifying tomorrow.”
