F1 Newsbites – Updates making the Brazilian GP weekend

 

Hamilton remains fastest in FP2

Lewis Hamilton kept on top of the time-sheets during Friday afternoon’s free practice two session at the Brazilian Grand Prix ahead of Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas as the Silver Arrows continued to lead rivals Ferrari and Red Bull.

 

Although Hamilton and Bottas could not improve on their free practice one times, with hotter temperatures, they were still quick enough to keep a one-two as in the earlier session.

 

Hamilton posted a 1:09.515 on the yellow-branded Soft compound and was 0.048 seconds clear of Bottas with their closest rivals more than two tenths down.

 

Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo who will be given a 10-placed grid penalty due to further power-unit component changes, was the Silver Arrows closest contender a further 0.228 seconds back in third.

 

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel split the Red Bull pairing of Ricciardo and Max Verstappen in fourth place while team-mate Kimi Räikkönen was a further three tenth’s behind the German in sixth.

 

Force India’s Esteban Ocon placed seventh and was in-front of Williams Martini Racing’s Felipe Massa who took eighth and Renault’s ninth-placed Nico Hülkenberg.

 

McLaren’s Fernando Alonso completed the top 10 in his Honda-powered MCL32, despite more power-unit problems with the Spaniard reacting angrily when returning to the pits.

 

Mercedes duo encouraged by form

 

 

Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas were optimistic over the Silver Arrow’s start to the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend after finishing 1-2 in both Friday practice sessions at the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

 

After securing both titles, Hamilton and Mercedes promised to push harder in the final two rounds of the season and comfortably lead the field.

 

Hamilton posted the lap-track record during the morning practice session with a 1:09.202, and held P1 in the afternoon despite his time being three-tenths slower than in first practice.

 

 

“It’s been a good day,” said Hamilton, who took a dominant victory in last season’s rain-soaked Brazilian GP. “It was pretty exciting to come to the track with the cars being so much faster this year. It’s physically more demanding than before which is great and it’s obviously quite warm out there today. We got through the long runs and the short runs; unfortunately, the tyres don’t really last very long, so you only get one or two laps on the short runs. Overall, we got through what we needed to do. We’re in a decent position, but I think it could be quite close.” Hamilton concluded.

 

Bottas believes the Silver Arrows has “a good starting point” with the W08 Hybrid for the rest of the weekend.

 

“Initially in FP1 we did some aero tests, looking at some things we can improve for next year, and we now have some data to analyse from that,” said Bottas, who sits 15 points behind Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel in third. Otherwise, I think both the short runs and the long runs in both sessions looked positive for us as a team, so we have a good starting point for the weekend. Still, we were a little bit struggling to get the set-up right for each corner of the circuit. However, I was really enjoying this track and I’m looking forward to the weekend.” Bottas said.

 

Vettel admits Mercedes tough to beat

 

 

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel believes that Mercedes will be hard to beat at the Brazilian Grand Prix at the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace after the Silver Arrows showed it’s solid pace during both practice sessions.

 

Both World Champion Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas comfortably held first and second in the two sessions.

 

Hamilton posted the benchmark in FP1 setting a 1:09.202 which was half a second quicker than what Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo posted in FP2 and a further tenth clear of Vettel.

 

While the German expects a “close battle” with Red Bull this weekend, Vettel says it’s unlikely that the Scuderia will be able to challenge the Silver Arrows for pole or the victory.

 

“Mercedes looked very strong, so I think they are a bit ahead, both of them [Hamilton and Bottas],” explained Vettel, reflecting on Friday’s practice sessions. “I think it’s very close between us and Red Bull. I think we can fine tune the balance and that should help us, but it will be tough to beat Mercedes as they look very, very quick in all conditions, and on all tyres. It was nice to get a lot of laps today, it’s more quiet on track than off track, so I enjoy that.” Vettel concluded.

 

Vandoorne positive on McLaren’s long runs

 

 

McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne was positive on McLaren’s long-run pace during Friday’s practice sessions for the Brazilian Grand Prix.

 

McLaren’s story of 2017 was it’s continuous reliability and speed trouble, due to Honda’s weakness which limited the Belgian to score only three points finishes of the season so far in Hungary, Singapore and Malaysia.

 

Despite finishing a low 13th during the afternoon practice two session at the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace and taking a spin through the second part of the famous Senna S, Vandoorne was optimistic on the MCL32’s race pace.

 

“We’ve brought a new upgraded aero package for my car this weekend so we started FP1 learning about and understanding that, which generally went very well,” Vandoorne commented. “FP2 was maybe a little bit more difficult – we tried some different settings and made some changes that weren’t necessarily in the right direction. However, our long-run performance was extremely positive – one of our strongest of the year so far I would say. Everything is looking good for the race. We still need to put everything together tomorrow, but a good qualifying would put us in a strong position for Sunday.”

 

Russell hails debut F1 practice outing

 

 

2017 GP3 Champion and Mercedes prodigy George Russell has hailed his “huge step up” as he made his Formula 1 weekend debut in Free Practice 1 at the Brazilian Grand Prix for Force India.

 

Russell, 19, joined the Silver Arrows at the start of the year and tested the W08-Hybrid during in-season testing at the Hungaroring and claimed the 2017 GP3 title with a race to spare.

 

Early in the week, Force India announced that Russell will pilot the Mercedes-powered VJM10 during Friday’s opening practice sessions in Brazil and Abu Dhabi with the Briton taking the place of Sergio Pérez.

 

Russell completed 29 laps and took 12th in FP1, with his best effort 0.593 seconds behind fellow Mercedes talent Esteban Ocon.

 

“This is something I have been working towards for a long time and even though it feels normal right now, it’s a surreal feeling to know I have been driving in a race weekend,” explained Russell. It’s a huge step up for me, but I have been prepared as well as I could be: I have done days in the simulator with both Mercedes and Force India. I feel that, after my days at the test in Budapest, this was the next step. I didn’t know the car or the circuit and I wanted to learn as much as I could to review and take to Abu Dhabi, a track I know,”

 

Russell spoke of the challenges of dealing with traffic on the Interlagos circuit especially during the later stages of the 90 minute session.

 

“We did some aero running early in the session, then some proper runs to change the set-up to my liking,” Russel continued. “All tyre compounds felt good and I got up to speed quickly. I was very happy with the car. The final half of the session was quite difficult: I was still doing fast laps while others were doing longer runs: it’s a short circuit and it’s difficult to find space. You end up compromising your warm-up procedures because you’re looking in the mirrors all the time, but it’s something from which I learnt a lot.” Russell said.

 

Toro Rosso duo and Ricciardo set for penalties

 

 

Toro Rosso duo Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly along with Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo are all set to undergo grid penalties due to power-unit component changes ahead of Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix.

 

Gasly along with team-mate Hartley and Red Bull’s Ricciardo all took on an eighth MGU-H unit before FP1 earning them a 10-placed grid demotion.

 

Gasly however, is set to receive a further 15 places bringing the Frenchman’s total up to 25 positions after more technical issues.

 

Gasly completed five laps before Renault-powered STR12 suffered another MGU-H failure, which kept him out of practice.

 

Toro Rosso was forced to fit his ninth MGU-H component of the season along with a seventh Turbocharger, which gave the Frenchman a further 15 grid-place penalties and bumped it up to a total of 25 positions.

 

Gasly made his Formula 1 debut at the Malaysian Grand Prix and also raced in Japan and Mexico while Hartley made his debut at the United States Grand Prix and raced alongside the Frenchman as a team-mate for the first time at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.