Round 15 of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship 2021 began with training on Friday at the Sochi Autodrom as the teams prepared for the Russian Grand Prix on Sunday.
The track action on Friday consisted of two 60-minute sessions – FP1 and FP2 – on the 5.848-kilometer circuit with 18 corners.
FP1 saw Mazepin right out on the track with the Pirelli P Zero Yellow Medium tires, while Schumacher’s wake-up run used the white hard compound. A six-lap baseline excursion on the red soft rubber followed for both drivers – they drove their fastest laps of the session. Mazepin recorded a 1: 38.586 for 19th place in the time table, while Schumacher gave a 1: 38.977 for 20th place overall. The morning session ended with high-fuel stints – Mazepin returned to his earlier middle set while Schumacher was back on the hard rubber.
Equipped with soft tires for the start of FP2, Schumacher set his fastest time of the session in his first run. The German put in a 1: 36.230, which he couldn’t do better on his second set of softs. Mazepin fell from a 1: 37.125 lap on his first set of softs to a best lap of 1: 36.099 on his second qualifying sim – the Russian finished 19th with Schumacher in 20th place. The session was interrupted by a red flag stop caused by Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi contacting the barriers at Turn 10 – the Italian was uninjured in the incident. FP2 resumed with 16 minutes on the clock – Mazepin and Schumacher, who most recently worked on a long fuel distance, run to the checkered flag.
The Uralkali Haas F1 Team ran a total of 84 laps on Friday in FP1 and FP2 – 43 from Schumacher and 41 from Mazepin.
Nikita Mazepin: “I love Sochi and I think Sochi loves me because when we got here yesterday I looked at the weather and it said it wasn’t going to be very good, but there is nothing better than the Sochi sun. Mostly with that track, it’s fast and then it flows, the whole lap is very comfortable to drive. I wasn’t sure how the car would feel as the balance can be different, but the balance was great was similar to last year in Sochi and although we lack the general downforce and pace, I think we are on the verge of achieving what we had to. We have completed our running plan for today and see what awaits us tomorrow – I don’t know I don’t think we’ll get the sun like today. “
Mick Schumacher: “Overall, I felt very comfortable. This track is not really driven over the year and that meant that we had a very green track in the beginning. I think in general we did a lot with the car, it felt comfortable at first, especially in FP2. Unfortunately, I couldn’t finish my lap in the second set, but we know we’ve got it. Overall, it’s more about getting to know the car better on every track, especially here, where I have fond memories of the F2, it’s positive to convert that into a good run in F1. Now it’s just a matter of putting it all together. “
Günther Steiner: “Today was a pretty good day without any major problems and both drivers and the team did a good job in both sessions. We went out early in FP2 to try to do a lap if there was a problem tomorrow give qualifying. ” It looks like it’s going to rain, but we don’t know for sure, so we’ll deal with it tomorrow. We made sure we did a lap today and everyone else did, so we ended up where we normally end up but all in all a good day at the office. “
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