Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team’s Sebastian Vettel showed promising pace in Friday practice sessions for the 2021 Mexican Grand Prix, placing ninth in second practice.
A dirty track surface left drivers searching for grip at the start of Friday’s practice programme as conditions posed an early challenge at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.
With Lance Stroll set to start near the back of the grid due to power unit-related penalties, his programme largely focused on longer runs and race preparations.
In the morning FP1, Sebastian Vettel managed to complete 27 laps with a fastest lap time of 1.19.858, which was good enough for P10. While Lance Stroll was only a handful of tenths shy of his team-mate to come home in P13, He manage to complete 27 laps with a fastest lap time of 1.20.030.
In the Afternoon FP2 session, Vettel managed to complete 32 laps while clocking fastest lap time of 1:18.681, which is good enough for P9 on the final classification. Lance Stroll focused more on long runs in the FP2, the Canadian managed to complete 36 laps with a fastest time of 1:19.730, which is good for P17 on the final classification.
Sebastian Vettel:
“It was a decent start to the weekend and it was good fun, despite the dusty and slippery conditions. I felt happy in the car and we gradually worked through the programme and built up the knowledge of the tyres.
“It is difficult to know exactly where we stand because the track was constantly evolving and getting quicker and quicker throughout the day. I think we have made good progress, though, and I expect it to be very close in and around the top 10.
“As ever, we will aim to fight for Q3, but I think all the teams have more to extract, as do we. Let’s see tomorrow.”
Lance Stroll:
“As we are expecting to start towards the back of the grid due to power unit change penalties, the focus today was on the longer runs and race pace, so it was a different programme to usual.
“I think we have made some encouraging progress, but tonight we will go away and look into ways to improve the car. It was dusty on track early on, so FP3 tomorrow will be a useful session to learn more about the car.
“The goal is to make sure we are in a good place to fight our way through the field on Sunday.”
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