Jarno Trulli: “It’s always good to get back to Spain. I’ve spent so much time at the Barcelona circuit it’s like a second home to me and the whole team and even though I must have completed thousands of kms around there it’s still a good challenge. It’s very technical and that puts demands on the car’s aero – a good aero package is one of the keys to being quick. Looking at the circuit itself I particularly like T9 – it’s one of the quicker corners in the whole calendar and one that rewards confidence and good balance. There’s not a lot of overtaking chances around the lap and we’ll see if the DRS plays the same role in Spain that it did in Turkey – if it does then tracks like Barcelona will suddenly have overtaking chances and that’s got to be good for the fans.”
Heikki Kovalainen: “Barcelona is one of the tracks where we all know every single centimetre of the whole lap. We test there so much that it usually ends up with the whole grid having teammates side by side but it’s the kind of circuit where you can’t hide anything at all. If you are quick there you can be quick everywhere as it’s demanding aerodynamically, and if you struggle there you could have problems at a variety of circuits. A good lap kind of flows until you reach the last three corners which are a bit fiddly. The first sector is probably the best – T1 is a quick chicane and then turns three, four, seven and nine are all fast. You need good high-speed stability there and good grip to get the best out of the car and when you hook it all up and put in a quick time it’s pretty rewarding.”
