Photo: Daimler AG
Not entirely-unexpected, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg finished the first two practice sessions at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in first and second positions, respectively.
With a total of 95 laps run across both practice sessions, the two Mercedes-AMG Petronas drivers completed just under one and a half race distances, even though Nico's mileage was restricted by an ERS (Energy Recovery System) cooling system problem in the first stint and therefore completed only nine laps.
Lewis Hamilton simply walked away with the best time of the day, its lap time of 1:25.524 in the second session being about a second faster than Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo, who had the third time of the day.
Lewis Hamilton: “It’s been a great day today and I’m happy to be back in the car after what feels like quite a long break. I can feel the positive step forward that we’ve made with the car so a big thank you to everyone back at our factories for all of their hard work since China. Our two practice sessions today went very smoothly, in fact I’ve not had such a good Friday for a very long time! Barcelona is a difficult circuit in terms of the tires so our running was all about trying to see how long the tires would last and we were able to make some positive changes with that during P2 this afternoon.
It’s very difficult to overtake here so we will do everything we can to qualify as high as possible tomorrow, but really it is all about the race and looking after those tires is the most important thing. Just finally, it’s great to see so many fans here today enjoying the action in this beautiful weather.”
After the ERS technical problem kept him from completing more laps in the first practice session, Nico Rosberg enjoyed a trouble-free second session, even though his best lap time was almost half a second slower than Hamilton's.
Lewis Hamilton simply walked away with the best time of the day, its lap time of 1:25.524 in the second session being about a second faster than Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo, who had the third time of the day.
Lewis Hamilton: “It’s been a great day today and I’m happy to be back in the car after what feels like quite a long break. I can feel the positive step forward that we’ve made with the car so a big thank you to everyone back at our factories for all of their hard work since China. Our two practice sessions today went very smoothly, in fact I’ve not had such a good Friday for a very long time! Barcelona is a difficult circuit in terms of the tires so our running was all about trying to see how long the tires would last and we were able to make some positive changes with that during P2 this afternoon.
It’s very difficult to overtake here so we will do everything we can to qualify as high as possible tomorrow, but really it is all about the race and looking after those tires is the most important thing. Just finally, it’s great to see so many fans here today enjoying the action in this beautiful weather.”
After the ERS technical problem kept him from completing more laps in the first practice session, Nico Rosberg enjoyed a trouble-free second session, even though his best lap time was almost half a second slower than Hamilton's.
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