'Routine' start for Force India in Melbourne

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Despite an initial glitch with the brakes on Esteban Ocon's car, Friday's free practice proved smooth and productive for Force India.

“As Fridays go, it was a fairly routine start to the 2017 season," reported Bob Fernely, the team's deputy principal.

"A brake system problem on Esteban’s car was the only significant issue at the start of FP1," he added. "Fortunately we resolved that quite quickly allowing Esteban to get on with learning the track."

"I didn’t have the best start to the day with a brake issue causing a delayed start to my running," Ocon concurred.

"But the afternoon was easier and I managed to find a better rhythm," he added, after ending FP2 13th fastest.

"The priority tonight is the usual job of exploring where we need to make changes. Where we can find some gains, and where I can improve too.

"Hopefully we can make a step forward during final practice to be ready for qualifying."

Perez goes hungry to help overweight Force India!

Sergio Perez had a more straightforward time in Melbourne without any of the issues experienced by his team mate.

"It’s always important to start the year with a trouble-free day and cover lots of miles," he said.

"We tried pretty much all the tyre compounds and we have the data we need to make improvements tonight. I think there are a few areas where we can find performance and we know where we need to focus our energy."

"Sergio’s programme was straightforward," added Fernley. "Esteban took a mature approach to learning quite a difficult track. We split some test items – aero and mechanical - between the two cars to make comparisons and that will help our decision-making tonight."

GALLERY: all the pics from Friday's action

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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.