On Track

Felipe completes maiden FP1 session at Yas Marina

Felipe made his official Formula One session debut on Friday in Abu Dhabi, while Sebastian showed top-six pace early on in the day.

In Free Practice One, Felipe took over Lance's car and completed the session cleanly.

Sebastian, meanwhile, finished the first session of the day in the top six as his final weekend as a Formula One driver got underway.

Lance returned to the car for FP2, which was the most relevant practice session for qualifying and the race later in the weekend.

Sebastian

As his final Grand Prix weekend began, Sebastian started the session on the Hard tyre.

After a slow lap to begin with, Sebastian later put in a 1.29.166 with a total of 11 laps on that set.

In the final quarter of the session, Sebastian switched to a set of Soft tyres and vaulted up the order with a 1.27.268.

His best lap was good enough for the sixth-fastest time overall in the session with 20 laps on the board.

Race preview by Cognizant

Abu Dhabi GP

The sun sets on the 2022 Formula One season at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi – the modern-day home of F1's finale which had several changes to its layout for 2021. This race will also mark the sunset of the career of an F1 legend – four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel.

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As FP2 started, Sebastian wasted no time heading onto the track with a fresh set of Medium tyres.

In a nine-lap run, Sebastian put in a best time of 1.27.482 before heading to the garage.

He switched to the Soft tyres and put in a 1.26.395 straight away before pitting after five laps on that set.

In the closing stages, Sebastian returned to the track on the Medium tyres from before and added 11 laps to them to complete 20 in total on that set.

At the end, Sebastian completed the hour of running on the same Soft tyres from earlier in 12th position and with 28 laps done.

"It has been like many other Fridays, to be honest!

"Once you drive out of the garage, you get into the rhythm and try and get in the groove with the car which did not take long this afternoon.

"It was the same again this evening with how the track changes here when the sun sets. It does feel a bit funny that it is the last Friday, however.

"All in all, a productive day with plenty of laps. We will see what we can do overnight and how we can improve ahead of tomorrow."

Lance

Lance sat out FP1 in place of Felipe but took to the track early in FP2 on the Medium tyre.

His early marker was a 1.28.455, before improving to a 1.28.137 on that set during an eight-lap run.

After some time in the garage, Lance returned to the track this time on the Soft tyre.

He improved to his best time of the session on his second quick lap on the set – a 1.26.547.

Following this, Lance completed a long run on the same set of tyres – completing 16 laps in total on the Softs.

Lance completed the session on the Medium tyres from earlier in the session, and was 14th-fastest with 27 laps completed.

"We completed some good laps in FP2 this evening after making way for Felipe earlier in the day. He did a really good job in FP1.

"We have some ideas that we want to think about overnight based on the data we have gathered today. It looks like it will be tight against our competitors again here, just as it has been all season.

"To beat them, we will need to maximise everything we can across the rest of the weekend."

Felipe

Fresh from his Free Practice session in Formula 2, Felipe stepped into Lance's car and started his first official F1 session on the Hard tyre.

He waited before he put in a timed lap, but he gradually improved his speed as the session went on.

On his 15 laps on the Hard tyres, he put in a best time of 1.30.045.

As the session started to draw towards its conclusion, Felipe switched to the Soft tyre.

His first timed lap on the set was a 1.28.895, before he went on to improve to a 1.28.672 – his best lap of the session.

After these laps, he continued on the Soft tyre, putting eight laps on them in total to safely complete 23 laps.

"It was a really good FP1 session today.

"We kept to the run plan: we wanted to try a few things with the car early on and it felt pretty good out there.

"After that, I also had a Soft tyre run which was nice. It was my first laps with the AMR22 and my first proper dry laps in a Formula One car and I really enjoyed it.

"Now, I look forward to working with the team again in the post-season test on Tuesday."