29/10/2022
NEWS STORY
Round 20 of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship started on Friday with practice at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez as teams prepared for Sunday's 71-lap Mexico City Grand Prix.
FP1 saw Pietro Fittipaldi behind the wheel alongside Mick Schumacher in the sister VF-22 - the Brazilian eligible to contest two FP1 sessions this season as part of the mandated 'Rookie Driver' outings - Kevin Magnussen stepping aside on Friday afternoon in Mexico. Unfortunately for Fittipaldi his session failed to progress beyond an opening stint on the Pirelli P Zero White hard tire. A power unit issue forced Fittipaldi to stop the car at Turn 3 as he began his out-lap on the Red soft compound. Schumacher logged 22 laps in a productive FP1 - initially emulating Fittipaldi with an opening run on the hard tire. A 1:21.952 was the German's fastest lap once he switched to the soft compound - good for P14 on the timesheet. A nine-lap high-fuel run, on his used softs, took Schumacher to the checkered flag.
Magnussen's VF-22, as used by Fittipaldi in FP1, required a change to a brand-new Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) - bringing with it a five-place grid penalty following Saturday's qualifying. Feverish work by the crew in the garage enabled the Dane to get involved in FP2 but with 30 minutes already off the clock in the extended 90-minute session - FP2 being used for Pirelli prototype tire testing for the second straight weekend. Magnussen reeled off a total of 21 laps with a best tour of 1:23.316 for P18. Schumacher ended the session one spot ahead of his teammate in P17. With 31 laps to his credit running the prototype compounds, Schumacher's fastest lap was a 1:22.879.
Haas F1 Team ran a total of 83 laps on Friday across FP1 and FP2 - 53 by Schumacher, 21 by Magnussen and 9 by Fittipaldi.
Kevin Magnussen: "We're back in Mexico and I managed to get some laps in. We had to use the test tires from Pirelli so the running we did today isn't super relevant, but still I got a good feeling for the track and I got into the rhythm of Mexico City."
Mick Schumacher: "It was alright, obviously the track has different challenges now with these new cars. It has been fun though, there have already been a lot of fans here today which is great, so expecting more tomorrow and on Sunday. We still have some work to do, we're not quite satisfied with our performance overall, but we still have something in us to move up the grid and be able to position ourselves well for the race. I would love some rain, I think it would suit our car very well so yet again we'll be doing the rain dance."
Pietro Fittipaldi: "It was good to get back in the car - obviously it was only for a few of laps - but it was good to get the feeling of driving a Formula 1 car on a different track, which is an amazing circuit. I'm very happy for the opportunity and I felt very comfortable, very quickly in the car. We weren't using DRS on the first run and we were running competitively, so I was really happy. Then again, going onto a new tire we were going to make a step but then unfortunately we had the issue. I was happy that I was able to get back into the rhythm quickly in the car and feel good and confident. It was a short FP1 but at least I got a run in, and in Abu Dhabi, I can come back into the car warmed up."
Guenther Steiner, Team Principal: "Mick had a very good day today, running through all his test program, so he should be ready for tomorrow. Unfortunately, Pietro's turbo let go after nine laps which meant he couldn't do a lot, so we didn't get that test program going. We had to change the engine afterwards and the team did a fantastic job to get Kevin out with only a 30-minute delay. Kevin could then get a program with the prototype tires in, but there obviously wasn't enough time to get the race tires on but at least he got back out on track and a little bit of experience. Now we need to do a solid job in FP3 to get ready for qualifying."
Check out our Friday gallery from Mexico City here.