18/04/2025
NEWS STORY
MoneyGram Haas F1 Team drivers Ollie Bearman and Esteban Ocon opted to start FP1 - commencing 16:30 local time - on the Pirelli P Zero White hard rubber.
Setting times of 1:32.023 and 1:31.852 respectively, both moved onto the Red soft compound to post their fastest laps of the session. Bearman recorded a 1:30.595 for P18, before returning back out on the softs for a high-fuel run. Ocon's quickest attempt of 1:31.029 classified P19, with the Frenchman swapping back to hards for his final stint.
Second practice got underway at 20:00 local under the full glare of the spotlights that illuminate the expansive 6.174-kilometer (3.836-mile), 27-turn circuit seaside circuit. With conditions for FP2 more representative of Saturday's qualifying session and Sunday's race start, drivers trialed the Yellow medium tire for the first time during practice, Bearman and Ocon banking laps of 1:30.436 and 1:31.456. Continuing to work on set-up, soft tires were bolted onto both VF-25s, resulting in the quickest times of the day, Bearman putting in a 1:29.754 and Ocon a 1:30.019.
High-fuel runs on the soft compound were interrupted by a red flag stop for the stricken Red Bull of Yuki Tsunoda who hit the wall at turn 27. Once the car was cleared, the track went green with one minute remaining of the session, and both MoneyGram Haas F1 Team drivers left the garage on used mediums for their practice starts to finish the day's running.
MoneyGram Haas F1 Team ran a total of 83 laps on Friday across FP1 and FP2 - 43 by Ocon and 40 from Bearman.
Ollie Bearman: "FP1 was difficult. I was struggling with similar issues to what I had in Bahrain practice sessions, just lacking confidence on the brakes and having a few lock-ups. We made a change for FP2, we put the brakes back from a race where they worked very well, and that was the case again, it was much better in the afternoon. On the other hand, we suffered a little bit on performance runs in FP2 missing a little bit, especially jumping onto the soft tire, so we have a bit of work to do. It's difficult to say where we are, it's really tight, but I think if we put everything together we can be in the mix, we just have a few things to finetune."
Esteban Ocon: "It was obviously a very busy one today and there are now quite a lot of things we need to look at. It hasn't been the easiest day, but as usual on a Friday, we gather data, and we try and improve things - the important day is tomorrow when we qualify. We'll do everything we can to put it together on Saturday and hopefully we'll have a bit more pace. It's always difficult to say where we'll be. This is a tough track and you need as much confidence as you can from every corner - you need to feel at one with the car. That's what we'll be working on tonight."
Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: "It was a pretty tricky Friday. We struggled in sector one - the high-speed section - the car isn't consistent or predictable enough to give confidence to the driver. We tried some different set-up options in FP2, and learned something interesting, so we're now focused on improving the car overnight. I think everyone is struggling with degradation on high-fuel so we also need to get on top of that. There's lots to work on tonight to improve the car and then have our best go at it tomorrow."
Check out our Friday gallery from Jeddah here.