Lance sixth in 2021 United States Grand Prix practice
Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One™ Team's Lance Stroll showed promising pace for the 2021 United States Grand Prix, ending Friday practice in sixth.
Lance and team-mate Sebastian Vettel completed 95 laps at the Circuit of the Americas as F1 returned to Austin for the first time since 2019.
Friday's practice programme began with a disrupted start when, three minutes into FP1, Alpine's Fernando Alonso came to a halt at Turn 12 to bring out the red flag.
After an eight-minute stoppage, Sebastian and Lance took to the track and began to establish a baseline in the AMR21.
With Sebastian set to take a grid penalty for power unit change-related reasons, the two differed on practice programmes as the former focused more on the race, rather than qualifying.
United States Grand Prix
Get ready for this weekend's United States Grand Prix with our in-depth preview. Hear from Lance and Sebastian, and discover the key talking points for the race ahead.
On the Hard tyres, Lance laid down an initial 1.43.458 benchmark while Sebastian produced a 1.38.523 lap on the Softs.
As the track evolved, Lance continued to lower his pace and ended his opening stint inside the top 10 with a 1.37.783 run before switching onto the Softs at the halfway mark.
Sebastian ran solely on the fastest compound in FP1 and, while assessing the characteristics of the tyre, produced a personal best 1.36.982 lap.
His best effort of 1.36.344, was deleted due to track limits, which placed Sebastian 14th at the close of the session after completing 20 laps.
Lance also completed 20 laps in FP1 and secured 13th, one-hundredth of a second ahead of his team-mate after a 1.26.972 run on the Soft tyre.
In FP2, Lance and Sebastian ran on all three tyre compounds as they continued their preparations for qualifying and the race.
The duo completed their opening stint on the Medium tyre and with a 1.36.718 lap, his best lap of the afternoon, Sebastian edged ahead of his team-mate by a handful of tenths on the mid-range compound.
At the end of this first stint, Lance fitted the Soft tyre to post his best lap of the day, a 1.35.561 run, to briefly hold the fastest time in the afternoon.
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Introducing Lance's out of this world United States Grand Prix helmet design. Created by Mark Antar. Chosen by you, the fans, on the Socios app.
Alternating between the Soft, Medium and Hard compounds, Lance and Sebastian switched their attention to long-distance running in the second half, completing a combined 55 laps over the course of the hour.
Lance's best time placed the Canadian in sixth at the close of the day, while Sebastian was 15th as Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One™ Team completed 95 laps in total on Friday.
Lance: "It was great fun out there today. There were big crowds in the stands and I enjoy this track. It has been a positive start so far with competitive pace and we have learned a lot too.
"Managing the tyres will be crucial on Sunday because it is very easy to overheat them in these hot conditions, and we saw that today, plus it is a demanding track generally with some quick sections.
"We finished the day in P6 and, while I expect others to improve tomorrow, we have some good momentum that we will carry into the weekend."
Sebastian: "Today we ran a different practice programme to the majority of the field because we will be taking a grid penalty [due to changing elements of the power unit], so that means our focus is on the race, rather than qualifying.
"We maximised the sessions to work on longer runs and gather lots of data to review. Hopefully, that will help us on Sunday and we will be in good shape for the race.
"Although we will start further back, Austin is a track where you can overtake and the hotter conditions will be a tough test for all of us, which will hopefully create opportunities to move forward in the race."
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