19/04/2024
NEWS STORY
Lewis Hamilton will start P2 with George Russell P11 for Saturday's F1 Sprint after a frantic Friday Sprint Qualifying.
Returning to the Shanghai International Circuit after five years away, FP1 proved a busy session with everyone keen to build their learning on what turned out to be a low grip surface.
The team opted to use only one set of the Hard compound tyre on each car, providing a more beneficial selection for the rest of the weekend.
SQ1 proved tricky but both drivers improved on their second push laps to progress to the next part of the session. Unfortunately, George would lose out in SQ2 as, after his first effort had put him P11, the rain fell and made improvements impossible. That rain continued into SQ3 where Lewis and the team made a bold call to box for a new set of Intermediate tyres with increased tyre pressures. That proved a good decision with Lewis qualifying P2 for the Sprint.
Lewis Hamilton: The conditions were very tricky out there. As you could see, there was not a lot of grip out there for anyone. As soon as I saw the rain coming though, I was getting very excited. Our pace in the dry didn't look quite quick enough to challenge at the very front, so the wet weather gave us more of an opportunity. That's when it all came alive.
We will have to wait and see what the conditions are tomorrow. We have a lot of fast cars starting behind us, but we will see what we can do to keep them behind us.
George Russell: It wasn't easy at all out there. I got one lap in SQ2 before the rain arrived, which was frustrating. We tried to get out on track as soon as we could, as we knew the rain was coming. We got stuck behind several cars in the pitlane however and lost a lot of tyre temperature. We were still close to going through; one more tenth and we would have made it, so it was a shame to be on the losing end of that.
Who knows what would have happened if we had got through to SQ3. Nevertheless, we've got a chance to recover in the Sprint tomorrow. After that, we've got qualifying for the Grand Prix in the afternoon and that is what really matters.
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director: It was a tricky day today. We knew that having not visited here in five years, the circuit would likely be very green in FP1. That proved to be the case and we therefore elected to only run one set of the Hard tyres. That provides us with a more beneficial allocation for the rest of the weekend. We hope that will prove useful as the track continues to grip up and evolve.
Given the solitary hour of practice, it was always going to be a challenge to get the cars in the optimal window for Sprint Qualifying. That was complicated further by the changing conditions. After getting both cars through to SQ2, George suffered from a lack of tyre temperature on his first push lap. As the rain began to fall, he found himself on the wrong side of the bubble. Lewis made it through and, after a good call by him and the team to change onto a new set of Intermediates with higher pressure, did a great job to qualify P2.
Our pace in the dry wasn't spectacular but with Lewis, we will be looking to keep those faster cars behind us in tomorrow's Sprint. George should be able to make some forward progress from his starting position and hopefully he can fight his way into the points. The on-track running in the Sprint will also provide us with further knowledge that we can utilise to make further adjustments to the W15 ahead of qualifying.