Practice report by Aramco: Spanish GP
Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel completed a productive day of practice at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Friday ahead of the 2022 Spanish Grand Prix.
The pair combined to complete over 100 laps in Barcelona, made more valuable by the circuit's mix of slow, medium and high-speed corners that make it such a popular testing venue.
Sebastian
Sebastian was able to demonstrate top 10 pace in FP2, progressively finding lap time improvement across Friday's running.
After conducting two exploratory laps on the Hard compound, the four-time World Champion quickly returned to the track to improve his understanding of the tyres.
He continued to add to his tally until a switch to the Soft tyres inside the final 10 minutes allowed him to show a turn of quicker pace.
Spanish Grand Prix
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A 1.22.164 effort was the result, resulting in 16th on the timesheets, though the German's focus was not on fast laps.
With a baseline established in the AMR22, Sebastian began FP2 on the Medium tyres before switching to the Softs midway through the session.
He quickly punched in the fastest lap of the session by lapping in 1.20.703 – a time that would eventually seal eighth.
Sebastian, and most of the field, then switched to longer race runs to complete the session, bringing his Friday lap total up to 51.
"It feels like we are moving in the right direction, but we must remember that this is the first day of our running this car," said Sebastian.
"You cannot make many comparisons to pre-season testing because the weather and track conditions are so different, so there is still a lot to learn and understand.
"Still, it is positive to end today inside the top 10, but let's see how we go across the weekend.
"We do not expect immediate results, but we want to continue to make progress."
Lance
Lance joined Sebastian in completing over 50 laps of the Barcelona circuit on Friday, testing all three tyre compounds and gathering valuable data.
The Canadian wasted no time in FP1 and began his session on the Medium tyre for an eight-lap stint to build a baseline.
Initially lapping inside the top 10, a 1.23.837 lap time was quickly lowered to 1.22.456 once he had switched to the Soft tyres.
There was more to come inside the final 20 minutes as Lance set his new personal best time of 1.21.920, which was good enough for 12th at the session's end.
Lance and team-mate Sebastian swapped starting compound in FP2 as the former exited the garage on a set of Hard tyres.
While he quickly reached the fringes of the top 10, progress in the stint was affected by Valtteri Bottas stopping at Turn One, bringing out the Virtual Safety Car.
Once the circuit returned to green-flag conditions, Lance lapped significantly faster than his FP1 best with a 1.21.249 effort and 13th place.
He then completed a total of 32 laps in FP2 as he switched focus to race simulations ahead of Sunday's Grand Prix.
"It has been a positive first day," said Lance. "We are making progress but we took it a little carefully today because we are understandably a little short on spares.
"Today feels like a step in the right direction, but we are still pushing for more. Over one lap, the car felt good, but I think there is more to come with the car balance.
"We will go away tonight and investigate the data and see where we can make improvements before qualifying tomorrow."
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