Intriguing Friday in Barcelona

• The Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix weekend got underway on Friday with three drivers sharing the duties in the car for the team.

• FP1 saw Third Driver Fred Vesti get his first taste of the W17, taking Kimi’s place for the first of four mandatory rookie sessions the team must run.

• He ran a similar programme to George in the other car, using the Medium and Soft compound tyres with a mix of single lap and long run work.

• He ended the session P15 having completed his low fuel running significantly earlier than the rest of the field and contributed useful long run data; George meanwhile topped the times.

• Kimi returned to the cockpit for FP2 and also ran the Medium and Soft compounds, the team keeping both sets of Hard tyres for the rest of the weekend.

• The Italian was fifth fastest on the single lap whilst George ended the day P2, just 0.009s shy of pacesetter Lando Norris.

• The Brit used the Medium for the long run, with Kimi on Soft, as the team collated data ahead of Sunday’s race.

George Russell

We've had a solid day here in Barcelona. After our recent run of bad luck, it was important to start this weekend on the front foot and that is what we have done. The car felt good in both sessions and, importantly, consistent. That is particularly crucial around a track like this which can really expose any weaknesses of a car.

The competitive picture looks tight. The McLarens were strong on the single lap and the long run picture in FP2 showed that we can expect a fight from the Ferraris and Red Bull too. There are still a few areas we can tidy up but we have a good base to build on overnight. Small gains will likely make a big difference, and I’m feeling positive about where we are heading into the weekend.

Kimi Antonelli

Today was a bit of a challenge on my side. There was a lot to catch up on after sitting out FP1; we struggled a little with overheating and finding the right balance in the car, which meant there was still work to do throughout the session. That said, there were definitely some positives to take away, particularly from the long runs, where the pace and feeling in the car were encouraging.

We gathered a lot of valuable information today and now it's about analysing the data overnight to understand where we can make improvements. George looked very competitive, and the McLarens seem strong as well, so we know the competition will be tough. However, I'm confident that we can take a good step forward for tomorrow. We'll keep working hard and aim to get everything out of the car when it matters most in Qualifying.

Fred Vesti

I’ve driven this car so much in the simulator, so it was an amazing experience getting behind-the-wheel of W17 for the very first time in real life. There were some good surprises in terms of its performance and definitely some things we can improve with our correlation. That was the main goal of today so I’m happy with that as a result.

I had a lock-up on the Medium tyre set which meant we switched to the Soft compound early. I therefore didn’t get the best of the track on my low fuel work, but I was pleased with my long run. That will hopefully prove useful for the team across the rest of the weekend. We look to be in the fight at the front, and our aim is to continue the momentum from what was a positive first day here in Barcelona.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

We've had a decent first day of practice here in Barcelona. Fred was driving Kimi's car in FP1 and did a very solid job of running through a few test items before getting into some single lap work and long runs. Fred has played a big role in the development of the W17, having been part of the simulator work from the beginning of the programme, so it's nice for him to finally get to drive the real thing. George had a very solid first session and it was clear we'd started with the car in a decent place. The long runs are always going to be challenging from an overheating point of view, but we seemed in a solid place in FP1 so changes into the afternoon were quite modest.

Kimi was back in for FP2 with a bit of ground to make up, which isn't easy when the tyres drop so much between the first and second push laps. George continued his solid form from the morning and looked strong on single lap although it's clear that McLaren look to be right on our pace and Ferrari not far behind. It's set to be similar conditions on Sunday and keeping the tyres alive will be a challenge, but the car looks to be working well in the heat. Overall a good start but we know the true tests of the weekend are in the coming days.

FP1 Result

FP2 Result