Checo, Lance and the RP20 up and running at the Red Bull Ring

‍Checo and Lance underlined the potential of the RP20 in Friday practice for Formula 1’s Austrian Grand Prix, with both cars comfortably lapping inside the top 10.

P3 for Checo and P7 for Lance in FP2 rounded off a strong first day of running, with the pair split by just 0.190s across the ultra-fast and short lap of the Red Bull Ring.

FP1 was an important session, as it gave the team a chance to increase our understanding of the baseline car that was intended to make its debut in Australia back in March.

With the session largely dry save for a brief shower, Lance and Checo were able to spend the early running reacclimatising to driving an F1 car.

After multiple runs, Checo took an impressive P5 with a 1.05.512 lap set on the soft compound tyre, while Lance was P11 courtesy of a 1.06.074 time using the same compound. Between them, our drivers racked up over 60 laps in the opening session.

FP2 proved equally promising as both Checo and Lance featured at the sharp end of the lap times.

Checo would eventually put in a 1.04.945 lap time on the soft tyre to take P3 in the session, with Lance following close behind in P7 thanks to a best effort of 1.05.135.

Consistent trouble-free running meant both drivers were able to hit over 40 laps of running each in FP2, with Checo and Lance lapping on the soft, medium, and hard compounds across the day.

Checo: “It’s been an interesting day. Everything is really close out there, especially on such a short track. The car feels good and I’m happy. In the factory, the team has done a tremendous job and we have a car underneath us that is working well.

“There’s still a lot of work to do – tonight and tomorrow morning – but we are in decent shape. The margins are extremely close, so it’s going to be really important to put together some really tidy laps in qualifying tomorrow.”

Lance: “It was very exciting to be driving again and it was a solid day for the team. We got a taste for the car in Barcelona during winter testing, but it’s good to see where we are relative to everybody else.

“We looked competitive and after so many months out of the car it was nice to get back in the groove. It’s definitely been one of the better Fridays I can remember for a long time – so that’s a good sign.

‍“Today, it looked like we had the pace. So we’ll see what tomorrow brings.”