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Team Summary:
The opening Friday practice for the 2022 United States Grand Prix would see
the Williams Racing Team run their Academy driver Logan Sargeant replacing
Nicholas Latifi. He would join several other FP1 runners Giovinazzi,
Schwartzmann, Palou and Pourchaire. With the start of the session there
would be a stream of drivers coming out on a mix of tyres with the medium
being the most common. But it would all come to a s top when Giovinazzi
would crash his Haas. The session would restart and both Williams drivers
were straight out remaining on the hard tyre. As times started to come in
Ocon would go fastest with a 1m:38.810. But Verstappen would move ahead with
a 1m:38.272 followed by Ocon and Alonso. Norris was fourth followed by
Stroll, Gasly, Perez and Schumacher while Verstappen had gone quicker with a
1m:37.462 now followed by Perez and Vettel and Sainz. But the top four were
all on the soft tyre.
Ocon was now fifth followed by Gasly, Alonso, Norris, Stroll, and Tsunoda
tenth. But Alonso would improve to be second and team-mate Ocon fourth with
both on soft tyres. Also on the soft tyre Hamilton was now second behind
Verstappen. Alonso was third followed by Vettel, Ocon, Sainz, Perez, Stroll,
Russell and Zhou tenth. With just over fifteen minutes remaining we would
have Stroll now quickest with a 1m:37.460 only to see Sainz move ahead with
a 1m:36.857. The Williams pair were currently 13th and 19th with ten minutes
remaining. Verstappen would improve to be second followed by Hamilton,
Stroll, Perez, Alonso, Russell, Gasly, Norris and Vettel tenth. With the end
of the session the order would remain the same while for Williams they would
finish in 13th and 19th. The drivers would be able to complete practice
starts prior to returning to their pits. For Logan Sargeant it was a very
workman like session quite uneventful but that is what the team was hoping
for. Alex's 13th was a great effort given his earlier comments regarding the
competitiveness of the FW44.
Alex Albon:
Alex would be first out for Williams using the hard tyre. Alex would set a
1m:45.219 to be currently 12th as he was forced to pit with the Red Flag.
Alex would return with the restart and would set a 1m:42.025 to be currently
tenth. He would drop to 15th as he pitted after a two lap run. With twenty
five minutes remaining Alex would return for a soft tyre run but would pit
after a single lap now 19th. He would return and was able to improve with a
1m:38.476 to be 12th. This would become 13th as he pitted after a five lap
run. He would return on the used hard tyre for his final run and would
remain in 13th with the end of the session.
Logan
Sargeant:
Logan was the second last driver to come out using the hard tyre on his
first run. With the Red Flag Logan would not set a time. Logan would return
as the session got underway remaining on the hard tyre. Logan would set a
1m:44.985 to currently be 14th. Logan would tell his engineer: "I am already
completely losing rear grip" while improving with a 1m:44.827 to now be
17th. He would pit after a five lap run currently 18th. With thirty minutes
remaining Logan would return this time on the soft tyre. He was currently
20th and with a 1m:41.132 he would improve to be 15th. This would become
16th and even though improving with a 1m:40.325 was now 17th. After a seven
lap run he would pit currently 18th. With just over ten minutes remaining
and Logan would return on used hard tyres. In an interview Logan would say:
"A lot different to what I expected... in general a good run and I learned a
lot .... lot more power and something to get use to ... a good day in the
office." |
