Pedro de la Rosa, 24th: “In the first session our weakest point was braking, as we were blocking the front and rear tyres. We improved notably in the afternoon after making some changes and you could feel it straight away. The session was going well but I made a mistake and went off track which, unfortunately, damaged the entire front suspension. My session ended there and we were unable to test neither the soft tyres nor many things which we had in mind but I’m keeping the positive aspect which is that we improved the car. I’m well and my mechanics are already repairing the car. They’re extraordinary professionals and tomorrow everything will be ready again to give it our best go once more in front of our home fans.”
Narain Karthikeyan, 23rd: “In the morning the track was very dirty because it hadn’t been used yet, so we just did some running and some work on the set-up and weight distribution of the car. In the afternoon we tried a few other things as the track was in better condition but we struggled to get the option tyres hot for the quick lap, so we have to work on that to try and get the most out of them for tomorrow’s qualifying. Other than that it was a good day and tomorrow we must look to build on this and find that long-desired good performance in qualifying.”
Luis Perez-Sala, Team Principal: “Overall it was a positive day; in the morning we were around and about the 104% and in the afternoon, after adjusting the balance of the car, the feeling improved. Narain, with a full deposit, had a very good rhythm and the car held out well, however he was unable to get the most out of the soft tyres. Pedro had an accident before switching to softs but fortunately it wasn’t too severe so tomorrow we will try to make up for lost time. Today we focused on the race and tomorrow we will work with qualifying in mind.”
