Belgian Grand Prix: Friday Practice Recap

Round 12 of the 2021 FIA Formula 1 World Championship began with practice on Friday at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps as teams prepared for Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix.

Friday’s track action consisted of two 60-minute sessions – FP1 and FP2 – on the 7.004-kilometer (4.352-mile), 19-turn circuit held under cloudy and grey conditions – with showers set to litter the weekend’s schedule.

A brief sprinkling of rain in the build up to FP1 meant the session was declared wet to start, with Mazepin and Schumacher running a solitary installation lap on the Pirelli Cinturato Green intermediate tires. Conditions quickly improved with both drivers back at it bedding in their VF-21’s on the slick P Zero Yellow medium rubber. The opening session ended with a sampling of the Red soft compound – Mazepin subsequently clocking a best time of 1:48.705 for 19th while Schumacher’s fastest lap was a 1:49.059 to place 20th overall.

Mazepin once again lead the way for Uralkali Haas F1 Team in FP2 with the Russian rookie 19th quickest. Armed on the soft rubber, Mazepin posted a 1:47.335 as lap times dropped across the board. Schumacher was 20th on the timesheets with the German rookie clocking a personal best of 1:47.529 in the session. A pair of red flag stops for Leclerc (Scuderia Ferrari) and Verstappen (Red Bull Racing) – both at Turn 7, disrupted the latter stages of FP2 denying Mazepin and Schumacher their full run-plan on high-fuel.

Uralkali Haas F1 Team ran a total of 60 laps on Friday across FP1 and FP2 – 30 each by Mazepin and Schumacher.

Nikita Mazepin, Driver No. 9, Uralkali Haas F1 Team

“The car felt good. The conditions today both times started off wet but were not wet enough for us to run on intermediates and we lost a bit of track time, but the car feels good in the dry conditions and I’m very much looking forward to tomorrow. The balance isn’t the easiest to drive but we’re not very far off our perfect balance in the car today. It was a challenging day but still enjoyable to do Eau Rouge flat out and get over 320 kph down the main straight, which was cool.”

 

Mick Schumacher, Driver No. 47, Uralkali Haas F1 Team

“It was definitely good to be back on track after the summer break, especially to a track like here, it’s special. I was hoping that it would stay wet but unfortunately the track dried up just as we were going out, but nonetheless, we learned a lot and we have a few ideas of what we want to try tomorrow. We’ll see what the weather does – today was supposed to be a completely wet day and it ended up being dry, so we’ll see what to expect for tomorrow.”

 

Guenther Steiner, Team Principal, Uralkali Haas F1 Team

“A very normal session for us in FP1 and FP2. The weather was a little unstable, so we always try to get the best out of it, but we really did all the test program which we planned to do.”

 

Friday Data

Event: Free Practice 1 & 2 for the Belgian Grand Prix – Friday August 27
Location: Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium
Layout: 7.004-kilometer (4.352-mile), 19-turn circuit
FP1 & FP2 Weather: Cloudy
Drivers: Nikita Mazepin & Mick Schumacher 

Free Practice No. 1 Rundown

Mazepin: 19th overall (1:48.705), 16 laps completed
Schumacher: 20th overall (1:49.059), 15 laps completed
Fastest Driver:     Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes (1:45.199)
Most Laps: 20 laps – Gasly (AlphaTauri), Sainz (Scuderia Ferrari), Ricciardo (McLaren), Latifi (Williams)

Free Practice No. 2 Rundown

Mazepin: 19th overall (1:47.335), 14 laps completed
Schumacher: 20th overall (1:47.529), 15 laps completed
Fastest Driver:    Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing (1:44.472)
Most Laps: 18 laps – Norris (McLaren), Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo)