3 laps completed, no lap time recorded… Esteban Ocon’s first Free Practice session lasted only 20 minutes this Friday in Azerbaijan. The French driver, who is competing in his 100th Grand Prix with Alpine this weekend, suffered from an engine power issue. The problem was resolved for FP2, and the driver from Normandy was able to complete 23 laps in this second session, accumulating data.<\/p>\n
\u00ab We had some problems during Free Practice 1 and had to make up for it during Free Practice 2 this afternoon because we missed valuable track time. \u00bb, Ocon noted. \u00ab As a result, the second session was very busy for us and we managed to get a lot of work done during that hour on track.<\/p>\n
Ranked 19th, over two seconds behind Charles Leclerc’s reference time, Ocon hopes that his team will be able to find solutions for Saturday’s qualifying session. \u00ab We have areas to work on tonight and tomorrow to bring more performance to the car. We now know what to work on with the engineers to prepare for a better day tomorrow, I hope \u00bb, he indicated.<\/p>\n
Pierre Gasly, on the other hand, was able to complete 41 laps in the two sessions (20 in FP1, 21 in FP2). However, the Frenchman also struggled to perform with his car. He finished 18th each time. A possible battery issue also affected him in Free Practice 2, causing trouble for Lando Norris on his quick lap.<\/p>\n
\n\nA slipstream is great, until there’s a car in the way \ud83d\ude05<\/p>\n
Norris catches Gasly’s Alpine on a flying lap and has to abort in the final sector.#F1<\/a> #AzerbaijanGP<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/CYr9JcNo8Q<\/a><\/p>\n