Round seven of the 2021 FIA Formula 1 World Championship began with training on Friday at Circuit Paul Ricard, while the teams prepared for the French Grand Prix on Sunday.
The track action on Friday consisted of two 60-minute sessions – FP1 and FP2 – on the 5.842-kilometer route with 15 corners, with the self-proclaimed “Summer Race” living up to its claim when bright sunshine greeted the field.
Nikita Mazepin led the way when he opened his account at FP1 with a wake-up run on Pirelli’s P Zero White hard tires. The Russian switched to red softs for his second stint and drove a best lap of 1: 36.651 – good for 18th place overall. Mazepin completed his running schedule with a fuel-rich foray on the tough compound. Track time was of vital importance to Mick Schumacher after a system problem on his VF-21 on his first lap at turn three resulted in the tail jamming. Schumacher had also lost a set of tires, his flat-spotted hard set was too damaged to be reused. After a 25-minute break in the garage, Schumacher returned with a set of soft bags. The German drove a 1: 37.329 and finished 19th in the session – later his qualifying sim was followed by a shortened high-fuel run.
In FP2, Mazepin and Schumacher started the session with baseline runs that tried the yellow middle rubber. They switched to soft tires for their respective qualification simulation runs. Schumacher displaced Mazepin by just under fourth hundredths of a second, his fastest lap was a 1: 35.512 (P19) to the best time of his teammate of 1: 35.551 (P20). Both VF-21’s completed their first day in France with fuel-rich runs on their used medium and soft tires.
The Uralkali Haas F1 Team ran a total of 85 laps on Friday in FP1 and FP2 – 47 from Mazepin and 38 from Schumacher.
Nikita Mazepin: “Not an easy day for us – the heat and the increased tire pressure may not be the best for the car that doesn’t have the most downforce, but from my side it was a very smooth FP1. In FP2 we have the schedule finished and I think we know where we stand for Sunday, but there is still a lot to improve for qualifying. Coming straight from Baku and Monaco is rather easier, as there is no wall waiting for you to exit every corner, what a rookie is a positive note. This track has its challenges – the asphalt is very tricky here, but I like to drive in France. “
Mick Schumacher: “Of course we had some problems in FP1 and that just meant that we couldn’t do all the races we wanted. We could still do all the laps we wanted in FP2, which was positive and we have to Learning track even better compared to FP1 so now it’s just a matter of completing all the things we have and trying to improve in the aspects we need and hopefully we’re a bit closer to Williams and we’ve had the tires too a bit of a pressure boost which makes it a little harder to keep the tires alive, especially on long runs. Now the point is to set up the car to be fine in qualifying and good in the race so hopefully we’ll make it . “
Günther Steiner: “Without Mick losing time in FP1, it was actually a very good session and I think we drove good laps. Mick had a problem with a brake-by-wire system but other than that everything went according to plan. We never have enough running but we always try to get the most out of two hours of running and with the available sets of tires. Let’s see tomorrow – we look forward to going out again. “
Check out our Friday gallery by Paul Ricard here.
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