Sebastien Buemi, 13th: “Good to be back in the car, because having had Spain and Monaco one after the oter, it has seemed like a long wait to go racing again. I didn’t run this morning, which is fine, but it makes the afternoon more important. It went well and we have a good scan of what the tyres are doing, including the prototype Medium which we tested here for Valencia in two weeks time. I did many laps which is positive, given that it was a tricky session with some cars going off track. We ran low downforce wings of course for this circuit and we have a good understanding of how they are working. It’s very nice to drive the car in low downforce configuration, with a very high top speed which is exciting. This track is always demanding for the brakes and so we pushed really hard on them today and now we must look at the data to see if we have made the correct cooling calculations.”
Daniel Ricciardo: “I attended the race last year but this is the first time I have been on track here. It’s awesome and walking the track, or driving it on the simulator does not give you a real impression of how good it is. It’s really more than I expected. I love being able to get out on track and really attack it and use the kerbs. Getting close to the walls gives the driver the impression of really owning the car and manhandling it which is good fun. So, a very enjoyable session. I ran a slightly different programme to the other races this year. I went out and did a couple of runs as a base line as usual and then I did a longer run at the end, although we had to change the plan a bit because of the red flag. Actually, this was the most laps I have ever driven consecutively in a Formula 1 car, doing 19 laps. It was good fun experiencing the Toro Rosso in more of a race trim for the first time. I learned a bit about the tyre behaviour even though the track was very dirty for the first two runs. Apart from the Prime, I was also able to try the Pirelli Medium which we have been given to test for Valencia. It was only for a short run and the level of grip they gave seemed quite nice and I am sure they will be good to race on in Valencia.” First Practice Session
Jaime Alguersuari, 14th: “I feel I have made a step forward here in terms of my understanding of the car, because I suffered a bit in recent races, so that is a positive aspect of the day. I am still struggling a bit to get the tyres to work properly over a single flying lap so we must work on that, although it might be difficult to do that tomorrow morning as I hear rain is forecast. On the other hand, I was very impressed with our long run race simulation, because the car seemed to perform much more consistently than in the past. For example, degradation on the rear tyres does not appear to be much of an issue. As for the brakes, I had a better feel for them here than in Monaco, so I think overall we are making good progress.”
