Fittipaldi hails 'fanstastic and exciting' opening day at Sakhir

Haas rookie Pietro Fittipaldi was ecstatic to be back behind the wheel of an F1 car on Friday, hailing an "exciting" opening day of running at Sakhir.

The 24-year-old Brazilian - the grandson of F1 legend Emerson Fittipaldi and the fourth member of his famous family to race in F1 - was called upon by Haas to replace the injured Romain Grosjean for this weekend's second round of racing in Bahrain.

Fittipaldi concluded his day a few tenths off the best time of his teammate Kevin Magnussen but more importantly he kept himself out of trouble in both practice sessions.

"It’s been both fantastic and exciting today," he enthused.

"This is the big league. So you go out in first practice and it’s different because there’s a bunch of cameras, everyone filming, taking pictures. So you’ve got to just keep focussed, keep calm.

"It’s been a year since I’ve driven a Formula 1 car, eight months since I’ve driven anything on track.

"I took the day step-by-step, I just kept my focus and kept calm. I was really happy with the day. The team have helped me with everything, the engineers did a great job talking me through things, and the mechanics have done a great job as well.

"The only set-back was in FP1, we had a lock-up that damaged my tires, I couldn’t do any further running. I kept my cool and we just went into FP2 and got through our run plan.

"Tomorrow I’ll make another step, slowly turn up the volume, and push when it comes to qualifying then the race."

• Read also: Aitken happy after building 'solid foundations' on first day

All things considered, Magnussen believed Fittipaldi had acquitted himself well.

"It’s a big ask to get thrown into a car a couple of days before the race weekend with no testing," admitted the Dane.

"I think he’s gotten up to speed really well. Hopefully he’s enjoying it."

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