Good Start to the Weekend in São Paulo

The only hour of practice this weekend promised to be busy with plenty of work to be completed; both drivers using the C2 Hard and C3 Medium compounds and completing a mix of high fuel and single lap running.

George finished this session P6 whilst Kimi ended the hour P10, completing his first running at the tricky Interlagos circuit.

The young Italian defied that lack of experience in Brazil though by progressing serenely to SQ3, alongside his team-mate.

Fitting the mandatory Soft compound for SQ3, Kimi delivered a strong lap to put himself on the front row with team-mate George Russell P4.

Tomorrow’s on track action starts with the 15-lap F1 Sprint before Qualifying takes place later in the afternoon.

Kimi Antonelli

Today’s Sprint Qualifying session was really good. SQ1 was a little bit more stressful than expected, as we finished it in P15, but the car felt good and I was confident my lap was going to be good enough to get through. I was able to build from there and find a good rhythm for SQ2 and SQ3.

My first push lap in SQ3 was looking really strong but a mistake at turn 10 likely cost me pole position for tomorrow’s Sprint. Many other drivers had moments though, so the conditions clearly weren’t easy; it’s a difficult track too but very enjoyable to drive. P2 is a good position to start from tomorrow and I want to thank the team, both in Brackley and Brixworth, for giving us the car to perform as we did today.

George Russell

P2 and P4 are good positions for us to be starting from tomorrow. We had strong pace across the whole of Sprint Qualifying and the car balance felt good. That is encouraging for us given how close the fight for P2 in the Constructor’s Championship is. Hopefully we can carry that speed and momentum into the rest of the weekend.

The weather forecast for tomorrow shows that we may have rain on the way. Even if that is the case, I am confident that we will have the car underneath us to fight with our rivals and to score important points in the Sprint. From there, it is onwards to Qualifying where we will be aiming for a similar performance as we’ve put together today.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

Today was a very solid effort by the team and drivers. Considering Kimi hasn't driven here before, a front row position after one hour of practice is very impressive. George also backed that up with yet another decent performance to put both cars in the top five.

FP1 was a relatively smooth session but we knew we had work to do. Our performance looked solid on the Hard compound in the early running, but we struggled on the Medium tyre. The engineers did a good job to put the car in the right window for Sprint Qualifying and whilst it's not perfect, it was clearly an improvement. We saw how difficult it was for every driver to put the lap together in SQ3. George had a moment in turn six on his first push lap; that put a fair bit of temperature into the tyres which ultimately led to a slide in turn 10 and cost him a shot at the front row. Kimi looked set to improve on his final run but locked a wheel into turn 10 which cost him time and led to a messy final turn.

All the weekend's points still lie ahead of us so whilst we're off to a decent start, we will be taking nothing for granted. We will likely see some challenging conditions over the next two days so we will need to be at our best and ensure we maximise each of the remaining three sessions over Saturday and Sunday.

FP1 Result

Sprint Qualifying Result