Sainz hails 'fastest lap of my life at Melbourne'

40

It may have been a typical first practice weekend of the season, but Carlos Sainz was still left reeling by the pace of the new 2017-spec cars.

"You can really feel that this new generation of car is much faster than last year," said Sainz after the end of Friday's practice session.

"I’ve done the fastest lap of my life around Melbourne this afternoon. And it’s only the second practice session!

"We still have more margin for improvement, but it’s already been very exciting to drive our new STR12," he added.

The cars are expected to be on average up to three or four seconds per lap faster this season. That's because of new tyre and downforce regulations that have been introduced over the winter. It's the first time the drivers have been behind the wheel since pre-season testing in Spain earlier this month.

"We were able to follow our programme, without suffering any issues, which was the main target for today," Sainz said. "We were able to keep learning and pick up from where we left in testing, so it was definitely a positive Friday.

"This doesn’t mean that we can now relax, as things usually get a bit more complicated on Saturdays, but it’s a good start."

Key considers drivers' experience a big asset for Toro Rosso

Sainz' team mate Daniil Kvyat was also upbeat about the first day's work in Australia.

"It’s great to finally be back on track and get the first race weekend of the year underway. It feels like we’ve finally gone back to school!

“It’s been a productive Friday. We were able to complete many laps and we easily got through our programme," said the Russian driver. "It’s all still very new, as it’s the first time for us here with these cars.

"Everyone will be looking to progress overnight and we will do the same. There is always room for improvement and I’m confident we will make a step forward for tomorrow."

GALLERY: all the pics from Friday's action

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.