Round 17 of the 2021 FIA Formula 1 World Championship began with training on Friday at the Circuit of the Americas as the teams prepared for the US Grand Prix on Sunday.
The track action consisted of two 60-minute sessions – FP1 and FP2 – on the 5.513-kilometer track with 20 corners – Formula 1 basked in the Texan heat on the opening day with an air temperature of around 28 degrees Celsius (82.4.) . Degrees Fahrenheit) and track the maximum temperature at 39 degrees Celsius (102.2 degrees Fahrenheit).
Mick Schumacher started the FP1 with a wake-up run in his VF-21 on the Pirelli P Zero White hard tire – Nikita Mazepin used the yellow medium mixture at the start. A change to the red soft rubber for a baseline tint gave Schumacher a best time of 1: 40.323. Mazepin failed to set a competitive lap time after an exit at Turn 19 cost the Russians the best of their set of tires. One last high-fuel outing ended FP1 – Schumacher’s session ended a little earlier than planned after contact with Perez (Red Bull Racing) at Turn 12 – the German returned to the pits as a precaution.
FP2 turned out to be another artful affair, with Schumacher ending the session in 17th place overall on the timesheet thanks to a qualifying sim lap of 1: 37.041 on the soft tires. Mazepin was 20th with a best time of 1: 38.026 – also on the soft mix. Schumacher also used the second practice session to test the medium rubber, while Mazepin tried the hard tires at the start. Both cars finished the race on Friday with another high fuel consumption up to the checkered flag.
The Uralkali Haas F1 team ran a total of 83 laps on Friday in FP1 and FP2 – 42 from Mazepin and 41 from Schumacher.
Nikita Mazepin: “It was bumpy and high-speed, which is not ideal, but it definitely gives the track character. I haven’t had the easiest day with traffic, the track is very long, but for some reason it just wasn’t me I’ve seen a lot of cars complaining about it. Unfortunately, on a track where the degradation is so high, we couldn’t achieve the one lap time we needed today. Tomorrow should be good. “
Mick Schumacher: “I loved it – it’s fun to drive here and it’s nice to see the crowd. It was a decent start to our first weekend in Austin with still a lot to do. We had a couple of patches that came out Got very grippy for some reason, “some others that weren’t, but it’s about finding the right line and setup for these circumstances, which I think will stay for the whole weekend. It would be great to have another Q2 appearance to confirm what we did in Turkey, we “just have to wait and see.”
Günther Steiner: “Well, the most important element of today was that we were back in the USA in front of the fans who missed last year. It was great to see how everyone was enjoying themselves here and the atmosphere at COTA is always there energetic – it’s a real boost and bodes well for the rest of the weekend. It was a solid day on the track – nothing unexpected from the two free practice sessions, it was all pretty standard. We’re where we are in terms of performance – you know that we, but it was good for Nikita and Mick to do their first laps on another new track, it’s all part of their rookie experience. “
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