Adrian Sutil, 11th: “I had quite a big workload to get through this afternoon so it’s a shame to lose so much track time. I was pushing hard on the option tyres and touched the wall on the exit of turn 7. That caused some damage to the suspension and I had to park the car. However, I think we still have a nice balance and we seem to be quite competitive this weekend. There’s a lot of work to do tomorrow morning because I missed a couple of long runs and I haven’t done many laps on the option tyre, but I’m sure we can still have a good weekend.”
Paul Di Resta, 6th: “Today was really about familiarising myself with the circuit and getting up-to-speed. The track was quite low grip in the first session with a lot of dust on the road, but the conditions had improved quite a bit by the afternoon. We made a few changes to the car, looking at the ride height and aero balance, and I think the direction we’ve taken has been pretty positive. There is still some more speed to come, but I’m pleased with the progress we’ve made today.”
Nico Hulkenberg: “It was great to have an extra set of tyres available today – the medium compound – and they worked well and gave good consistency. I then used one set of the usual prime tyres, which felt okay with no signs of graining. The car was quite together today; there was a good balance with our new medium downforce wings and I think we’ve made a strong start to the weekend.”
Dominic Harlow, Circuit Engineering Director: “We ran our usual Friday programme today, and also had a new medium tyre compound available as a precursor to Valencia. This performed well in FP1, whilst Nico and Paul evaluated the Canada aerodynamic package for the VJM04. In FP2 the circuit continued to evolve, and Paul compared the race tyres available here. Adrian touched a wall during his outing on the options and so wasn’t able to complete the session. As we’ve seen today that is easily done in Canada. All in all the car is performing quite well and we are looking forward to the qualifying session tomorrow and, of course, trying to weigh up what the weather will do on Sunday.”
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