Round 2 of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship commenced with practice on Friday at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit as teams prepared for Sunday’s 50-lap Saudi Arabian Grand Prix – the second-ever visit to the street circuit and coming just four months after the inaugural event.
Friday’s action consisted of two 60-minute sessions – FP1 and FP2 – around the 6,175-kilometer (3,836-mile), 27-turn circuit.
FP1 was a mixed bag for Haas F1 Team with Kevin Magnussen limited to just 2 installation laps before a hydraulic leak resulted in his VF-22 remaining in the garage for repairs. Mick Schumacher fared better than his teammate with 22 laps recorded across the hour. The German sampled Pirelli’s P Zero White hard tire to start before switching up to the Yellow medium compound – on which he set his fastest lap of 1:34.429 (P19).
FP2, set under the lights in Jeddah, brought more heartbreak for Magnussen as he was forced to retire his VF-22 on-track with further mechanical issues. The Dane had yet to clock a flying lap on his fresh Red soft tires – his previous best lap of 1:32.344 (P20) coming on his starting medium set. On the other side of the garage Schumacher enjoyed a clear run in the session – one in which he logged 27 laps. An early stint on the hard compound was followed by a qualifying sim on the soft rubber. Schumacher set a fastest lap of 1:31.169 (P13) before going on to finish the session with a high-fuel run.
Haas F1 Team ran a total of 64 laps on Friday across FP1 and FP2 – 49 by Schumacher and 15 by Magnussen.
Kevin Magnussen: “It wasn’t ideal to get the limited running but on the laps I did have, the car didn’t feel too bad. I’m just hoping for a consistent FP3 tomorrow – get some more laps in, then qualifying and then we can use some of Mick’s experience on the long runs to get ready for the race. It’s a great track, super high-speed and there’s a lot of action so I’m looking forward to more running tomorrow.”
Mick Schumacher: “Good things were learned. Obviously, it was unfortunate that not both cars were able to run, so hopefully that will get better in the future. I think that overall, we know what we have as a package and it’s up to us now to put it all together.”
Guenther Steiner, Team Principal: “Not the perfect day today but I think we can recoup tomorrow if we have a good day, it’s just that it could’ve gone better. Kevin had too many technical issues with the car but we’re working on it and will sort them out. Mick did a good, solid job.”
