United States Grand Prix: Practice Recap

Ollie Bearman and Esteban Ocon started FP1 with a baseline stint on the Pirelli P Zero White hard tire before switching onto the Red soft rubber to bank their fastest laps of the session. Bearman posted a best effort of 1:37.665 for P11, with Ocon clocking a 1:37 896 to hold P16. Ocon remained on the softs while Bearman returned to the hard compound for sustained runs through to the checkered flag.

FP2 later in the day began with both VF-26s exiting the garage on the Yellow medium tire followed by a swap onto softs for Bearman and Ocon’s qualifying sim laps. Bearman landed in the top 10 with a fastest lap of 1:36.536 securing the Briton P10 on the timesheets. Ocon placed P14 with the Frenchman logging a best tour of 1:37.111. High-fuel runs rounded out the run program – Bearman utilizing soft tires while Ocon concluded Friday’s track activities back on the yellow rubber.

TGR Haas F1 Team ran a total of 103 laps on Friday across FP1 and FP2 – 51 by Bearman, with 52 from Ocon.

Ollie Bearman:

“It’s been a positive first day in Austin. I had a good feeling in the car, and to be honest, it’s been a continuation from Singapore in terms of that good feeling, so that’s nice. There are a few things we’ll look at tonight to be able to get some more performance out of the car, but we’ll see what we can do for qualifying – I’m optimistic!”

Esteban Ocon:

“Conditions are good out there, but the track is quite bumpy all the way around. We’ve struggled since the start of the day, front-locking everywhere, and the car’s very difficult when trying to attack the corners. We’ve changed a few parts compared to Singapore, so we need to understand where that’s coming from. We’ll keep looking tonight and hopefully come back better tomorrow.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal:

“I think it was a reasonably successful Friday. On Ollie’s side, he was happy with the car straightaway and had lots of confidence, so that’s probably the cleanest Friday of the season from his side of the garage so far. On Esteban’s side, it’s not a huge problem, but he’s struggling under braking – so we need to get to the bottom of that issue. If we can, I’m sure we can get Esteban up there with Ollie. The competition is really tight, so it’s about fine-tuning, and we really need to squeeze everything out of it tonight to be in the best position for FP3 and qualifying tomorrow.”