AUSTIN — Lance Stroll posted the fourth-fastest lap on Friday in the first free practice session ahead of tomorrow’s United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.
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The Quebec driver, visibly in good shape aboard his Aston Martin, recorded a time of 1 min 37.460 s, conceding six tenths of a second to Spaniard Carlos Sainz (1:36.857), who hoisted his Ferrari to the top of the table .
Max Verstappen, recently crowned world champion for a second consecutive season, finished second (1:37.081) in his Red Bull ahead of Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) who completed the Circuit of the Americas in 1 min 37.332 s .
Sergio Pérez (Red Bull), Fernando Alonso (Alpine), George Russell (Mercedes), Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri), Lando Norris (McLaren) and Sebastian Vettel, Stroll’s teammate, completed the top 10.
Good feelings
There were five drivers who did not have a regular wheel to take part in this first free practice session and the best of the group was Robert Shwartzman (Ferrari) who obtained the 16th fastest time, two seconds behind Sainz.
“I felt comfortable and experienced good sensations during the first practice session. But it is especially on Saturday that we will have a better idea of our level of competition compared to the other stables in the middle of the pack,” said Stroll, in an interview with the “Journal”.
“We concentrated on evaluating the behavior of the car in the short and long stints. But, we will have to find the necessary settings to increase our speed, ”he added.
The second session, presented at the end of the afternoon and extended by 30 minutes, did not give a precise indication of the forces present since it was devoted, at the request of the supplier Pirelli, to testing new tires which could be used in 2023.
Nevertheless, it was the other Ferrari, that of Charles Leclerc, who stood out as a lower curtain, even if all the drivers said that these prototype rubbers proved to be less efficient.
Stroll could not do better than 15th position while Vettel did worse with 19th place just ahead of Ontario’s Nicholas Latifi, dead last.
▶The identity of Nicholas Latifi’s replacement at Williams next season could be known as early as Saturday and in all likelihood it would be young American Logan Sargeant.