Liam Lawson ended his first day at the Madring circuit with confidence that there is more to come. The New Zealander completed 26 laps in FP1 before adding another 21 in the second session, improving from a 1m35.539s to a 1m34.938s as he continued getting to grips with the unfamiliar Spanish Grand Prix venue.
In FP1, Lawson finished 1.462s away from George Russell, but in FP2 he cut that deficit to 1.276s behind Kimi Antonelli. With every driver learning the circuit for the first time, Lawson said building confidence remained the priority throughout Friday rather than immediately chasing the limit.
"For all of us, Madring is very different and takes a lot more time to get used to compared to tracks that we've been to many times over the years," Lawson said. "The track is very exciting, it's very fast in a lot of places, and very high commitment. FP1 was all about building up."
He added that the track continued to improve as more laps were run. "The track gets a lot faster because it's never really been driven on as we're doing a lot of laps, putting rubber down, and making it faster, but I think after FP2, there's definitely more time to find."
Lawson's second session was slightly curtailed late in the hour by an issue on his RB22, although Red Bull was able to resolve the problem. He said his approach had remained measured as he worked towards Saturday qualifying. "I think the main goal for over the weekend is to try and do as many laps in Practice as possible and be prepared for Qualifying. So, we probably left a little bit of margin while getting used to the track, but everything feels okay so far. We'll try and tune it up overnight and have a stronger drive tomorrow ahead of qualifying."
His teammate, Max Verstappen, finished ahead of Lawson in both sessions, placing fifth in FP1 before ending FP2 sixth and 0.401s behind Antonelli. The four-time world champion also felt Red Bull had made progress as the day developed, but pointed to further work required around both outright speed and tyre performance. "Both sessions today weren't too bad. We're always trying to find extra pace and understand more about the tyres. It's all about building confidence, especially here on a new track and I felt that we were getting up to speed lap after lap. There are always little things to tweak, work on and improve, and that's what this evening is for."
Red Bull technical director Pierre Wache said the team had already made substantial set-up changes between the two sessions, with the characteristics of the Madring proving different in several areas compared to simulation work. "Mechanical grip and the ride are more challenging than what we thought, the tyre grained more than expected, and the track is more bumpy than what we thought from the Sim, so there are some challenges."
While Red Bull remained outside the leading group on outright pace, Wache was encouraged by its longer running and tyre management. "The long run was quite competitive, and our tyre management was quite good, so there's some positives," he concluded, hinting that Red Bull still has room to fight at the front this weekend.
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