On our first visit to the Losail International Circuit north of Doha, FP1 took place in the afternoon sun which offers less representative conditions for the remainder of the weekend as qualifying and the race take place after sunset. However, it allowed the drivers to get used to the new venue, with plenty of practice laps and exploring the track boundaries.
And it was Max who was the quickest to pick up pace as he finished the session fastest overall, leading Pierre by just over 0.4s in a Honda-powered one-two. Yuki also started strong by setting the fifth fastest time of the opening session, with Sergio ensuring all four cars were in the top ten as he finished eighth.
In FP2 it was once again Pierre in second place as his strong start to the weekend continued, this time just over 0.2s off the fastest lap. Max was a little over 0.1s down in third place, Yuki was half a second off the pace in seventh place, while Sergio finished eighth two sessions in a row.
With a lot of data to work through from the first run at a new track, we’ll be spending the time between now and FP3 analyzing everything we’ve gathered to ensure optimal operation of the PU ahead of qualifying.
