Daniel Ricciardo and Lewis Hamilton topped Thursday’s Practice sessions respectively in what is a result that would have surprised anyone just a few weeks ago.
The defending Constructors’ Champions Red Bull entered this weekend in the headlines, but not for the right reasons. It was all about the Christian Horner investigation and while the case was dismissed, further developments will have played in impact on the team this weekend.
Max Verstappen could only managed sixth fastest in FP1, however, he was the second fastest driver on the soft compound of tyres, only behind Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso.
Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate, Sergio Perez, could only manage 12th place in the first practice session before improving to tenth place in FP2. Verstappen was sixth fastest once again in FP2.
When the teams started to run their race simulations, it was looking like Verstappen was unsurprisingly the fastest driver on the circuit.
RB were the real surprise of the opening practice session taking first and fourth as Yuki Tsundoa also went fast on the soft compound of tyres. It would be encouraging for the team to get some decent early running underway and they followed up their strong result with a 12th and 15th place finish in FP2 as they took a different approach to the session.
There has been a lot of talk about Mercedes going into the 2024 season after it was announced that Lewis Hamilton would be leaving the team at the end of the season and making the switch to Ferrari.
The German manufacturer would end FP2 with a 1-2 finish, the seven-time World Champion ahead of George Russell. This would be an improvement on the earlier performance where Russell would finish the session in seventh and Hamilton in ninth.