Sebastian finishes practice 10th as Zandvoort makes F1 debut
Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One™ Team's Sebastian Vettel bounced back from a challenging opening 2021 Dutch Grand Prix practice at Zandvoort to finish the second session in 10th.
The first two practice sessions at Zandvoort proved challenging for the entire Formula One field with three red flags across two hours of running, reducing active track time by over half an hour.
Unfortunately, Sebastian was the first driver to cause a delay after a powerunit-related issue forced him to park the car at the exit of Tarzan.
The recovery of the AMR21 meant the session had to be red-flagged after just over 15 minutes of running.
Dutch Grand Prix
Formula One returns to The Netherlands for the first time since 1985, but the Dutch Grand Prix is back with a twist. The circuit features an incredibly daunting banked corner and a revised, high-speed, narrow circuit through the sand dunes of Zandvoort...
Sebastian's team-mate Lance had made an encouraging start to proceedings before then, consistently lapping quicker on each attempt to place seventh following a 1.13.223 effort.
When the session restarted with just over five minutes left, Lance switched from the Hard tyre to a set of Softs, helping him to improve to 1.12.431 for ninth place.
The team put in an excellent effort to ensure Sebastian could get out swiftly for FP2, ensuring he could get up to speed with Formula One's first visit to a new-look Zandvoort.
Following an early red flag caused by the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian took to the track on a set of new Medium tyres.
He set his early best lap time of 1.13.479, his first representative lap time of the day, and began to rack up the laps.
Lance picked up where he left off and set times well inside the top 10, running in seventh after his 1.12.136 lap.
The Canadian had set a purple first sector and a green second sector when the session was again red-flagged after an off for Nikita Mazepin, which denied Lance a chance at setting one of the session's best lap times.
Lance: Zandvoort challenge like Imola, Suzuka
Lance is one of the few currently active Formula One drivers to have experienced the circuit, and he gives his take on what to expect from the new-look Zandvoort, including its steep banking.
Lance then used a combination of the Soft and Medium tyres to refine the AMR21 and get up to speed with the circuit layout.
Having been denied a chance to go faster, Lance's earlier best of 1.12.136 stood, meaning he finished the session in 14th.
Sebastian was able to extract a strong lap from the Soft tyre to end the day in 10th after a 1.11.713 lap time, completing a good turnaround from his disrupted morning.
With traffic proving to be a factor, as well as the red flags, the team worked diligently to complete 77 laps, providing crucial data ahead of qualifying tomorrow.
Sebastian: "I think overall that was a decent afternoon session. We had some catching up to do because of the power unit issue this morning.
"So I had to find the rhythm quickly and it helped that I have driven here before many years ago. They did not change too much on the track [layout], but I think the changes they have made are for the better.
"It is an exciting lap because of the banking and corners with camber are always good fun to drive. We need more circuits with these types of corners.
"The crowd was great, too, and I am enjoying the atmosphere. There is more to come from me and the car so it will be interesting to see what we can find overnight."
Lance: "It was a positive day to start the weekend and I really enjoyed the experience of driving at Zandvoort once again.
"Track time was limited in FP1, we finished ninth, and we looked strong in FP2 until we were caught out by the red flag when I was on a quick lap.
"I felt comfortable in the car and I think we have a good baseline. We know that qualifying is going to be key to success here because overtaking will be so difficult, but there is some degradation, which might make strategy a bit more of a factor.
"We have got plenty of data to look at tonight and we will aim to take another step forward tomorrow."
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