Mexican driver Esteban Gutierrez has completed his first Formula 1 practice sessions for the new Haas F1 Team after a year away from the championship in 2015 when he was the Scuderia Ferrari reserve driver.
Gutierrez completed his first practice for the American-led team on Friday morning, completing a total of eighteen laps around the Albert Park in FP1, finishing eighteenth quickest with a time of 1m41.780s. For FP2, the Mexican completed a time of 1m42.891s to go eleventh quickest, with Gutierrez finishing quicker than team-mate Romain Grosjean in both sessions.
Conditions were variable in Melbourne on Friday with Gutierrez believing the team ran as much as they could to get data in preparation for Saturday.
“It’s amazing to finally be in Melbourne, running out on track and making history for the team,” said Gutierrez. “The guys have done a fantastic job to get everything ready.
“The conditions today have been variable. However, we ran as much as we could to get as much data as possible to prepare for Saturday. We’ve obviously got some work to do tonight to get everything sorted for tomorrow, but I’m looking forward to getting back out there.”