FP1 & FP2 - Austrian GP report: Manor Ferrari

Round 8 of the FIA Formula One World Championship - the Formula 1 Grosser Preis Von Österreich 2015 - got underway in cool and damp conditions this morning at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg. Overnight rain had subsided in plenty of time for when the cars took to the track for the first of the Free Practice sessions, when Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi were able to reacquaint themselves with the undulating 4.326km circuit; Will having raced here in Formula Renault 3.5 and Roberto in Formula 3 Euroseries and DTM.

Will enjoyed a straightforward morning, while Roberto encountered a powertrain issue with the turbo later in the session, so he completed just 11 laps and was unable to improve on his lap time. The pair were placed 18th and 19th respectively.

This afternoon, they posted 34 laps apiece to end the day in P19 and P20.

Will Stevens

“Overall it’s been a good start to the weekend and I’m feeling quite positive. We’ve done some good work with our programme today and our long and short run pace seems good here versus the cars around us. We’re in a good place compared to the McLarens ahead. The weather looks a little unpredictable, and if we manage to miss the rain, it will certainly be cool and cloudy for the next couple of days. I think we can do a good job here so we’ll have our heads down tonight to look at what we need to do from here.”

Roberto Merhi

“I lost a bit of track time today with a small issue, so I haven’t had a completely smooth day and I think this is reflected in the lap time. The afternoon was a bit more straightforward and the pace was starting to come towards the end of the session, so I’m sure we can continue to improve tomorrow morning in preparation for qualifying. It’s a great lap here; really enjoyable to drive and quite challenging. We saw that today, up and down the field, so it’s a circuit that could bring some opportunities for the race.”

John Booth, Team Principal

“We’ve had a reasonably good start to our weekend here in Spielberg, completing our planned programme with Will and Roberto. We had a small problem with Roberto towards the end of the morning session, but we were soon on top of this and back on track for the afternoon. There are good signs for our relative pace here and it’s a track that could spring a few surprises. We’ve seen today how tricky sector 3 can be, in particular that final corner. I think there is good reason to look forward to a positive qualifying and race, and hopefully the weather is the only unknown quantity now.”