21/10/2016
NEWS STORY
Lewis Hamilton topped the morning session with Nico Rosberg P2. Nico Rosberg then set the fastest time of the day in the afternoon session with a 1:37:358. Lewis ran the medium, soft and super soft compound tyres in the morning session and the medium and super soft in the afternoon session. Nico ran the soft and super soft compound tyres in both the morning and afternoon sessions.
Nico Rosberg: The running of the car was different between P1 and P2 because of the temperature; it was very cold when we ran this morning. The weather also had a bearing on the balance of the car as it altered as a consequence of the changing wind direction around the track. It should be different tomorrow because the weather is going to change again, as it does frequently here in Austin, and it means what we learn today might not necessarily help us for Saturday.
Lewis Hamilton: This circuit remains special for me as I won my third World Championship here last year. It's great to see so many fans enjoying F1 in the US and coming out to show their support. On track it's been a great day for reliability and getting our programme done. Given the wet weather conditions here last year and the lack of reference points for each tyre compound Nico and I had to cover as much ground as possible to help with our understanding. We've still got to go away and analyse the data overnight to make sure we're ready for P3 and qualifying tomorrow.
Paddy Lowe, Executive Director (Technical): It's great to be back in Austin with some fantastic sunny weather. It's been a good day and we've managed to get through our programme without any issues. We've taken a look at all three tyres during the course of the day and tried to close off as many open questions as possible as there are still a lot of options on the qualifying and race strategy. During the afternoon session long runs Lewis tried the medium compound tyre whilst Nico explored the soft and both ran the super soft tyre. We've lots of work to do tonight still and it looks like it could be pretty close between the three top teams. We need to get everything right if we're going to have a good weekend.
Check out our Friday gallery from Austin, here.