Valtteri Bottas Fastest lap for Mercedes in Friday’s floodlight free practice formula One Qatar is set to enter the decisive phase of the title fight for the first time ever.
Red Bull Championship Leader Max Verstappen Set early in the evening an exploratory and dusty daylight ride at the Losel Circuit on the outskirts of Doha before ending at the top of Bottas in the evening.
“Today started off well with the setup, the balance in the first run was great, only minor changes had to be made for FP2 (second practice),” said Bottas, who has a seven-time world champion team. Lewis Hamilton Finished fourth in both seasons.
“I’d say it’s the ideal way to start a weekend on a new track.”
The Finn, out of title reckoning and the Swiss-based . heading towards Alfa Romeo At the end of the season, Verstappen finished in one minute 23.148 seconds, compared to his earlier best of 1:23.723.
Bottas was 0.350 faster than Verstappen in the second session.
“Valtteri looked like the guy out there today, he was quick on a single lap and very good on long runs,” said Mercedes Trackside Engineering Head Andrew Schovlin, who was pleased to see the track turned up as expected.
“If the car is working well, we’ll see the car working well with Lewis. So it’s been an encouraging Friday for us from that point of view.”
of alphatauri Pierre Gasly He was second in both exercises with Verstappen, who had a 14-point lead over Hamilton with three races remaining, was third in the evening.
Hamilton was 0.786 slower than his opponent in the opening session, when he rolled wide on 14 turns before standing with a damaged front wing.
“Are we slow on the straight or something?” The Briton asked on the radio. “No, Not Especially,” Race Engineer Peter Bonnington answered.
Hamilton said after the second season that he would look for answers overnight.
“I don’t know how big the gap is, but I’m close, I’m certainly not close,” he said.
“The track is pretty good, no real problems. I’m a little slow at the moment so I need to figure it out tonight.”
Russian rookie Nikita Mazepin missed the evening session as the Haas team replaced his chassis after damage suffered in an earlier stint.
Red Bull Championship Leader Max Verstappen Set early in the evening an exploratory and dusty daylight ride at the Losel Circuit on the outskirts of Doha before ending at the top of Bottas in the evening.
“Today started off well with the setup, the balance in the first run was great, only minor changes had to be made for FP2 (second practice),” said Bottas, who has a seven-time world champion team. Lewis Hamilton Finished fourth in both seasons.
“I’d say it’s the ideal way to start a weekend on a new track.”
The Finn, out of title reckoning and the Swiss-based . heading towards Alfa Romeo At the end of the season, Verstappen finished in one minute 23.148 seconds, compared to his earlier best of 1:23.723.
Bottas was 0.350 faster than Verstappen in the second session.
“Valtteri looked like the guy out there today, he was quick on a single lap and very good on long runs,” said Mercedes Trackside Engineering Head Andrew Schovlin, who was pleased to see the track turned up as expected.
“If the car is working well, we’ll see the car working well with Lewis. So it’s been an encouraging Friday for us from that point of view.”
of alphatauri Pierre Gasly He was second in both exercises with Verstappen, who had a 14-point lead over Hamilton with three races remaining, was third in the evening.
Hamilton was 0.786 slower than his opponent in the opening session, when he rolled wide on 14 turns before standing with a damaged front wing.
“Are we slow on the straight or something?” The Briton asked on the radio. “No, Not Especially,” Race Engineer Peter Bonnington answered.
Hamilton said after the second season that he would look for answers overnight.
“I don’t know how big the gap is, but I’m close, I’m certainly not close,” he said.
“The track is pretty good, no real problems. I’m a little slow at the moment so I need to figure it out tonight.”
Russian rookie Nikita Mazepin missed the evening session as the Haas team replaced his chassis after damage suffered in an earlier stint.
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