Another hard-fought weekend ahead for Honda power in Spain
Circuit de Barcelona-CatalunyaAll four Honda-powered cars finished Friday practice in the top ten at the Spanish Grand Prix and gathered plenty of data ahead of what looks set to be another hard-fought weekend.
Part of FP1 was spent getting used to a modified track layout, with a new Turn 10 to learn for the drivers, and Max hit the ground running as he ended up second overall by just 0.033s. The first session saw all four cars inside the top 11, with the second Red Bull Racing of Sergio in ninth, two places behind Pierre in seventh and two ahead of Yuki in P11.
FP2 was a bit more tricky for Red Bull as Max had to abort his first attempt on the soft compound tyre due to running wide at the new Turn 10, and then Sergio’s effort came later in the session and left him just behind his team-mate in ninth and tenth respectively.
Although the qualifying simulation lap times weren’t representative, the high fuel pace was a lot more competitive until Max picked up slight damage to his front wing late in his long run.
The two Scuderia AlphaTauris were leading the way from a Honda perspective on the timing screens, with Pierre sixth and Yuki seventh, both within half a second of the fastest time overall.
This was a straightforward first day of practice, with everything going smoothly across both teams and all four drivers. It’s only Friday, but all the same, looking at the times and the gaps it is clear that, once again this weekend, the battle with their direct rivals will be very close for both our teams. Therefore a small time gap can make a big difference in the race. We will therefore be studying our data, both from the past at this track and from today, looking at the smallest detail in order to optimise our settings to be in the best possible shape for qualifying tomorrow.
I think overall FP2 was a good session for us, to finish sixth shows the car is strong. The pace of the car is definitely there but the balance isn’t quite right yet, so we’ve got to make a few tweaks tonight to maximise our performance ahead of Qualifying tomorrow. Obviously, our main goal this weekend is to score points, as we’re fighting against tough opponents in the midfield pack, and I think if we can improve in the few areas that we’re struggling in we could be up for a good weekend.
I’m happy with our performance and the pace of the car today. I’ve driven this track a lot, so I know it well, which meant I could be more confident driving from the offset, unlike in Portugal where I was having to use each session to learn the circuit. I’m very positive ahead of tomorrow. I just need to focus on my own driving and the set-up of the car before FP3 and Qualifying - this is what I will work on tonight with my engineers.
Overall I think we actually had quite a good day and the car seems pretty competitive. I was a little bit wide at Turn 10 on my push lap in FP2 but there is nothing shocking to report from either session. The track changes to Turn 10 seem better over one lap when you are pushing. It is a bit faster and more enjoyable to drive, but for overtaking I think it could be worse. How competitive we are going to be tomorrow is always going to be a question mark on a Friday but from our side we are quite happy. Of course you always want to improve and do better so we just have to make sure tomorrow that we are up there but I’m looking forward to it.
It was a tricky day today. We had a couple of delays in both sessions which meant we were rushing a little and running into some traffic, and with less practice time this year it’s important to get the laps in. Tonight we’ve got some understanding to do and pace to find, especially over one lap. I think our long run pace is stronger but there’s work to do. Let’s see what we can find because qualifying here is especially important. Hopefully we can recover the pace and be in the mix tomorrow.