Browning hails ‘fantastic’ Hitech car after strong showing in Baku Free Practice

Luke Browning was in good form in the Baku Free Practice, as the Hitech TGR driver finished with the fourth fastest time in the opening 45 minutes of running in Round 12.

The Briton made a tremendous start to the session with his first push lap of a 1:58.407 putting him over a second clear of the rest of the field.

Browning continued his fine form as he consistently found himself at, or near, the top of the leaderboard after each lap he completed, ending up with a personal best of 1:55.869 before heading back into the pitlane.

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However, once the Williams Racing Driver Academy member returned to the track he ran wide at Turn 1, and could not improve, leaving him down in fourth place, but still ecstatic about how things went.

“We looked quite good, I think,” said Browning. “The first lap out there we had a good gap, the first lap was over a second quicker than everybody else, so that felt nice around this low grip street circuit.

“We seemed to be quick throughout the rest of the session. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a lap on the second run, so I didn’t manage to improve when everybody else did.

“But the car was fantastic today, Hitech did a great job. But FP is different to quali, we have a different tyre, so there are no guarantees, it is important to work hard.”

As a team, it was a very impressive session for Hitech, as while Browning was fourth, his teammate Dino Beganovic finished P3, just 0.058s behind leader Alexander Dunne’s 1:55.720.

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This strong performance came off the back off Browning converting pole into a win at Monza last time out. When asked why he and his team are performing so well, he said: “Honestly, I think a lot of it is down to the cohesiveness of how we are working together.

“I think we all feel connected, the guys have put a great car down, and me and Dino are working on ourselves a lot between each event, and that’s where you are seeing the progression come from.”

Looking ahead to Qualifying, Browning will be hopeful of taking a second consecutive pole. But with the drivers set to put on the Supersoft tyres after running the Softs in Free Practice, he expects there to be a big step forward in performance.

“A massive difference,” said Browning when asked about the change in tyre compounds. “You will probably see quite a big jump going into quali, and maybe a balance change too, so you could see guys who have struggled on the Soft tyres be quick on the supersofts.

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“Here is so balance dependent, you have to be so in tune with your engineer, in tune with the team and in tune with how you are affecting the car. Who knows what quali will be like, but it’s a nice start to the weekend.

“I hope it’s a clean session. Just get round, everyone qualifies where they should and then let’s see how it goes.”