Fascinating Friday in Belgium

• The final double-header before the summer shutdown got underway at Spa-Francorchamps in the Ardennes of Belgium.

• The first hour of practice proved difficult for the team with neither driver comfortable with the car balance; Kimi ended FP1 P6 with George P8.

• Solid work from the team between the sessions led to improvements though with Kimi topping the times in FP2 on the single lap.

• George would end the day’s running P8 but that was after a solitary Soft tyre effort with tyres not quite in the right window.

• The usual long run work was interrupted by a lengthy red flag with the Alpine of Pierre Gasly finding the barrier at Turn 13.

• That means we head into the weekend with more unknowns than usual on what is set to be a typically competitive Saturday and Sunday.

Kimi Antonelli

After a tricky FP1, we made several changes to the car that improved things. That gives us a positive direction to follow as we head into the rest of the weekend. There is still lots of work for us to do, both in terms of set-up and also with my driving. Whilst we ended the day quickest, we know just how competitive the field is looking on both the single lap and the long run. Overall, though, we’re happy that we enjoyed a much better second hour of practice and we’re looking forward to the weekend.

Our goal as always is to maximise our points scoring and fight for the win. Whilst Silverstone was disappointing for me, it’s already behind us and I feel in a good place. Our pace was strong there and whilst Spa presents a different challenge, after today, we can be confident of getting ourselves in the fight at the front.

George Russell

We haven’t had the smoothest Friday here in Spa. We overestimated the grip levels in FP1 and that meant our starting set-up wasn’t in the right place. We struggled with a difficult car balance and, whilst we were able to complete some learning, it wasn’t the ideal way to start our weekend.

We therefore worked hard ahead of FP2 and made some changes which improved things. There is still more lap time we can find, particularly on the single lap, and we will look to do that overnight. Our long run was more competitive and that gives us encouragement heading into Saturday and Sunday.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

There was less grip than we were expecting in FP1 and that meant the car was under-winged during that first hour. The drivers were fighting a tricky balance and thus didn’t have the confidence in the car to extract the lap time. Both George and Kimi did well to work with a car that was proving a handful and give us a good direction for FP2.

The changes we made between the sessions did their job and the car was in a much happier place come FP2. Kimi was able to hook his Soft tyre lap up to top the times and whilst George ended the day in P8, that is not representative of what he is capable of. He only had one go at it and we can see several areas where he will extract more time as we head into the weekend.

The competitive picture looks tight as it has in recent races. Our goal is always to get both our cars at the front; our long runs looked solid and race pace is by far the most important thing around Spa. We will work hard overnight to find more pace and do our bit as a team to make sure we are in the best possible position for the rest of the weekend.

FP1 Result

FP2 Result