Manor Racing’s Pascal Wehrlein is happy with his first running in F1 at a race weekend despite challenging wet conditions which meant every driver could not complete a significant amount of mileage on the slick tyres.
Wehrlein ended the first practice session at Albert Park in 16th place, completing six laps in total. FP2 was much better for the German as he completed 25 laps.
The 21-year-old admits despite the challenging conditions, completing as many laps as possible in second practice was the aim, which they accomplished.
“This wasn’t the best weather for the first day of my debut season, but a pretty good start I think. The main target was to get as many laps as possible, no matter what the conditions, and that’s what we did.
Even if practice was dry, Wehrlein believes it still would have been difficult for Manor to know where they stand in the pecking order.
“Even in the dry it would have been difficult to compare ourselves with the other teams so early in the first weekend but I was able to start pushing a little to explore the package we have here in Melbourne. I’m happy and now looking forward to preparing for my first qualifying tomorrow. My thanks to the team for a good first day.”
