The Debrief by Aramco: Austrian Grand Prix

Kicking off the double-header, we made our way to Red Bull Ring for the Austrian Grand Prix. Get the thoughts of Lance and Fernando following Friday's Free Practice sessions.

Completing a combined total of 127 laps, our duo spent Friday's sessions testing all three tyre compounds beneath the Styrian mountains.

Friday round-up and reaction

Rain fell on the track overnight, resulting in limited grip in the first of the weekend's Free Practice sessions.
Over the course of FP1, Fernando set 26 laps on the Hard tyre and five laps on Softs, while Lance began by gathering information on Mediums before pitting for Softs for the remainder of the session.
In FP2, Lance began on Hards and Fernando on Mediums. Both switched to Softs around the halfway mark before returning to the Hard and Medium compounds to conclude the session.
When the chequered flag fell in FP2, Lance and Fernando both classified inside the top ten – P4 and P9 respectively.

#18 | Lance Stroll | Free Practice

"It feels good to be back in Austria – it's a great track and I always enjoy coming back here so I'm looking forward to this weekend.

"We've seen some improvements in the car over the last few weeks and we'll try to do the best we can here. It's still early in the weekend for us to say where we're at compared to everyone else, but the car is feeling good so far and we got through our run plan for the day so we'll see tomorrow how it goes."

FP1

1:06.160

P13

FP2

1:05.022

#14 | Fernando Alonso | Free Practice

"I'm feeling better after the last few races. With the last two in the points, the car feels like it's coming alive again. It's still not quite in the right window, but we will see how we progress as we go into the weekend.

"It's really close out there, so we need to nail the lap in Qualifying tomorrow and make sure our race pace is strong too."

FP1

1:06.170

P14

FP2

1:05.457