Strong First Day in Madrid

• George Russell and Kimi Antonelli topped the times in FP1 and FP2 respectively as F1 made its debut at the 5.414km, 22-turn Madring in Spain.

• This weekend marks the sport’s first race in the Spanish capital since 1981 and the new circuit poses a fierce track for both car and driver.

• The first hour of running was all about building understanding and confidence; after initial sighter laps, both George and Kimi put in strong lap times to lead the way as most of the field focused on single lap work.

• With high tyre degradation, the vast majority of the field opted for a second Medium tyre in FP2, thus saving both sets of the Hard compound for Sunday’s race.

• Despite a red flag interrupting the second hour of running, both Kimi and George completed a decent programme across both low and high fuel work.

• Kimi topped the times by virtue of his second effort on the Soft tyre; George was P5 but only got one proper push lap in with his tyres not fully ready at the start of the lap.

• Both drivers completed a mini long-run on the Medium compound to end the day and provide useful data and learning ahead of Sunday’s 57-lap Grand Prix.

Kimi Antonelli

That is our first day done on track in Madrid and it is a very cool circuit to drive around. It is a real challenge for us as drivers, with lots of high-speed corners and walls close by. You need to be very precise with your lines and good on the brakes; it is very easy to lock-up as there are a lot of places where you are braking and turning at the same time. It is a fun challenge and one that I am enjoying.

We’ve had a good first day here but there is still lots of work to do ahead of the rest of the weekend. It is going to be difficult to look after the tyres on Sunday and overtaking is likely going to be a real challenge. That makes our single lap work tomorrow morning even more important; we will focus on that overnight but also looking to ensure we have a good race car for Sunday.

George Russell

It was very fun driving the Madring for the first time today. It is always an enjoyable experience when you get to try out a new track; this place is particularly challenging, which is good fun as we get to grips with it.

We started well in FP1, and the car was strong from the off. We made some set-up changes for FP2 but I’m not sure they improved the car so we may row back on them overnight. The bigger question from today is the tyre degradation. It was very high in FP1 and, although it was reduced for FP2, the long Turn 12 really puts the tyres under pressure and that will be difficult to manage on Sunday. That is something we will need to be on top of if we are to be in the fight this weekend.

We’re looking forward to the rest of the weekend now. Overtaking on the long run in FP2 was really tough so qualifying will be very important. We looked decent on the single lap but with the smoothness of the tarmac here, it wasn’t always straightforward to get the tyres working for lap one. That is something we will work on overnight and tomorrow in FP3; hopefully we can get ourselves in the battle for pole position.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

New circuits are always a good challenge for the engineers as the preparation work is so crucial to being able to hit the ground running. In that regard, we look to have done a solid job, and both drivers were improving steadily through FP1.

The tyres were a bit tricky to get into the window but once we'd got them going, the grip was surprisingly high, and the drivers were able to set some decent times. It was good to see George top FP1 and Kimi top FP2 but the challenge with circuits like this is in keeping your car in the window as the track grip keeps evolving.

Whilst we covered a lot of single lap work, the long run was cut short by the red flag in FP2. What we have seen though is that the front tyres are having a tough time and that is probably going to be the same story on Sunday. It looks tight at the front so we're going to have to find a bit more pace if we want to be in the battle for the front row tomorrow evening. Overall, the day has been encouraging though and it looks like we are as much in the fight as anyone else.

FP1 Result

FP2 Result