Adrian Sutil, 10th: A fairly normal Friday for me and we did most of the things on the job list. I was struggling for grip a bit today, especially at the start of the session and I was having to fight the car. But I think most of that was due to the fact that the track was quite green today. We know it always gets better with each session so I don’t think it’s anything to worry about. In the afternoon the longs runs went well and gave us plenty of information on the soft and supersofts for the race.”
Paul Di Resta, 9th: “The morning was quite positive and we completed the programme and managed to learn a bit more about the package we ran at the Nurburgring last weekend. That set us up quite nicely for the afternoon when we did the usual performance runs and long runs to get data on the two tyres. It was good to get 40 laps in during the second session and it helped get me up to speed with the track, which is still quite new for me. The circuit was very green to begin with and tyre wear was high, but it was still consistent and improved quite a bit by the end of the day.”
Nico Hulkenberg, 13th: “I started my programme by trying out a different front wing concept to collect data on its characteristics. Then, we switched back to the usual set-up and I did a proper baseline run and the car felt pretty good straight away. I struggled a bit with brake warm-up today, but overall it was another good session and the soft tyre lasted pretty well for me.”
Dominic Harlow, Circuit Engineering Director: “There were two themes to the programme today, aero development and tyre evaluation for the race. As usual Nico ran some development items in FP1, whilst Paul worked on some areas of the car we felt could be improved after the last race. In the afternoon, with rain showers popping up around us, we were fortunate to collect the tyre information as intended and now have to analyse that. The circuit grip was not high, and we expect to improve the balance a bit more before qualifying.”
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