Haas
Hirakawa had a tricky start to his FP1, after he overshot his pit box early in the session. That aside, he managed plenty of laps for the team who remain in data gathering mode as they continue to explore the limits of their upgrades. Bearman wound up in the top 10, which looked an encouraging start for Haas.
The youngster was the fastest of the two Haas drivers in FP2 as well, but the team dropped back slightly with Bearman 13th and Ocon 15th as the Frenchman began the process of playing catch up after sitting out FP1.
Esteban Ocon – FP2: 1:08.830, P15
“I jumped in the car after Ryō was in for FP1, so there was a lot to take on board, but there seems to be a lot less degradation than in Barcelona, which is quite positive, even with the heat. We’ve got a clear direction of where we want to go tomorrow and what we need to improve, so we’ll try to do that. It’s too early to see where we’ll stand, but we’ll try and do the best we can.”
Oliver Bearman – FP1: 1:09.071, P10; FP2: 1:08.532, P13
“It’s been a positive day overall. I’ve been happy with the progress, honestly, and the car has also been good. We had a few things to focus on after Barcelona, and I think the car is in a good window right now. The gaps are tight like normal, so we need to make a step for tomorrow, but as far as Fridays go, I’m pretty happy.”
Ryo Hirakawa – FP1: 1:10.493, P19
“It was my first time in the VF-26 today, so a big thank you to TGR Haas F1 Team and TOYOTA GAZOO Racing for the opportunity. It was a hectic session and we were busy working through quite a few tests, but everything went well. I couldn’t really do a proper lap though because we were limited by time, but there was some good feedback between me and the team, which they can take into the rest of the weekend.”
Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal
“We had Ryō in the car for FP1, and we had a very different program, focusing on test items, considering what’s been happening the last few races. That was really important, so in terms of lap times, I wouldn’t read anything into that because, honestly, our program was very different and we weren’t focused on one-lap performance. On Ollie’s side, I’d say that was one of the best starts to a weekend we’ve had in quite a few races, which is really good. We’ve been saying we need to start the weekend on the front foot, getting our set-up in the ballpark, and build up from there, and I feel overall today we’ve done that. In FP2, it was far from perfect, and we need to find performance, but today I felt our operations were good, our cars started from a good place, and we were chipping away at it. We still have performance to find on both low and high-fuel, but I think it was a good Friday and a good reaction from the last few races.”
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