(Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 Team)
Reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton picked up where he
left off in Free Practice Two in China this morning as the Mercedes AMG F1 Team
driver ended the session at the Shanghai International Circuit with a fastest
time of 1m 37.219s to end the session just 0.443s ahead of Scuderia Ferrari’s
Kimi Raikkonen. Speaking following the second session, Hamilton commented
saying:
‘Today was definitely
an improvement on Friday in Malaysia. It was good to get both sessions in and
that puts me in a stronger position. The team has done an amazing job to find
some improvements in the car. Balance-wise it’s way better than the last race and
it was generally feeling really good. I don’t know how long I went on each
compound but it felt good on the long and short runs. The prime perhaps didn’t
feel as good as the option but I’ll have to go and analyse the data to see
where we are compared to the others. It was quite close between us and Ferrari.
They look just as fast as they were last time out and Nico was quick as well,
so we definitely have a race on. But I feel like I’ve got some improvements to
make and I think we’ve got the pace to stay ahead.’
Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 Team’s Executive Director
(Business) Toto Wolff was happy with the performance of his outfit today
saying:
‘It was a good day from
a reliability point of view, with both cars running the programme like we
planned and doing lots of laps. We also ran a new front wing in the morning and
the correlation all looks good, so a great job done by the team back at the
factory. Performance wise, we look competitive over one lap – although Nico
didn't quite get his lap together today. But Ferrari are close – and closer
still on the long runs. We saw in Malaysia that we need to get every detail
right to put together a winning weekend, so this will be our focus tonight as
we do our analysis and tomorrow in preparation for qualifying. It will be an
exciting battle. ‘
Mercedes Executive Director (Technical) Paddy Lowe stated:
‘We had a good day
today: there were no problems to report and we completed our planned programme
successfully, including the evaluation of our new aerodynamic parts. We ran the
two different types of tyre at different fuel loads and gathered a lot of
useful information. There is a big difference between the prime and option over
a single lap, which will certainly influence strategies for the rest of the
weekend. Both drivers were pretty happy with the car today but Ferrari look to
be similarly competitive here as they were in Malaysia, so we will have our
work cut out once again.’
Kimi Raikkonen recovered a brake issue early on in the
second session to end the day in second place with a fastest time of 1m 37.662s,
the Iceman completed 35 laps in the SF15-T.
Infiniti Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo finished the day
in third place following to a tough start to the weekend. The Australian
completed 24 laps with a fastest lap time of 1m 38.311s. Speaking following the
session, Ricciardo commented saying:
‘We had a good
Friday, we got all the running we could from the sessions and our pace looks
good. We had a few aero updates and drivability is always getting better, we
definitely have had an improvement and that’s all we can ask for. We obviously
have a few more steps to take but we’re making them in the right direction, so
that’s positive.’
Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel ended the session in
fourth place completing 30 laps with a fastest time of 1m 38.339s ending the
day 1.120s behind Lewis Hamilton’s fastest time.
Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 Team’s
Nico Rosberg was fifth fastest for the Brackley based outfit. The German
completed 35 laps with a fastest time of 1m 38.399s, 1.180s behind Hamilton.
Speaking following the session, Rosberg stated:
‘It seems that we are
very quick on one lap – but I just didn’t get my lap together on the softer
tyres. I tried a different line on the grass at the final corner, which was not
very quick as it turns out! Obviously, that wasn’t ideal and it cost me a good
lap. But Lewis showed the pace we have in the car. On a long run we need to
analyse the data to see where we are but the Ferraris seem to be very strong
again. In the morning I tried a new front wing and we collected a lot of data,
so that was a very useful session for us. It will be a long night with the
engineers to find the best setup for the race on Sunday.’
Infiniti Red Bull Racing’s Daniil Kvyat finished the session
in sixth place despite a rear brake failure towards the end of the session. The
Milton Keynes based outfit have changed their brake material since the
Malaysian Grand Prix following problems with an awful lot of brake dust and
locking up. The Russian set a fastest time of 1m 38.737s having completed just
10 laps.
Speaking following the session he stated:
‘We are
investigating what happened with the brakes, it felt like I couldn’t stop the
car, so we need to learn more about that. Everything had been fine up until the
end of FP2. It’s a shame I couldn’t make a longer run but we still got many
useful laps in. We brought some upgrades here and they look quite positive.’
Williams Martini Racing Team’s Valtteri Bottas was seventh
fastest for the Grove based outfit, completing 27 laps with a fastest time of
1m 38.850s. Speaking following the session, the Finn stated:
‘It was a normal Friday for us without any
mistakes or unknowns. The updates we brought have worked, so we are a little
quicker through the corners now, which is always positive. The temperature here
suits us better than in Malaysia, so I think we can be strong in qualifying but
we need to make sure we focus on the race and especially on the front left tyre
graining.’
The Sauber F1 Team’s Felipe Nasr finished the session in
eighth place following an extremely impressive Free Practice One session where
he finished fifth place. The Brazilian completed 26 laps with a fastest time of
1m 39.032s. Speaking following the session he commented saying:
‘It was a good day. I am
satisfied as I think we have fixed the issues we had in Malaysia. The updates
we brought seem to work well. We need to make sure we do a good job in
qualifying and find a suitable set-up for the race. I think we have a good
chance of scoring points again.’
The Sauber F1 Team’s Head of Trackside Engineering Giampaolo
Dall’Ara stated:
‘It was another positive
Friday. We had no major issues, so we were able to complete our planned
programme. We tested a new front wing on Felipe’s car, which was encouraging.
Marcus concentrated more on set-up work. In the afternoon we did the usual race
preparation with long runs on high fuel and the tyre comparisons. We were
pretty lucky with the red flag, which didn’t really spoil the programme for our
drivers. Overall, we can have a positive outlook for the remainder of the
weekend.’
The Lotus F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean sat out the opening Free
Practice session as the outfit’s test driver Jolyon Palmer drove the E23 Hybrid
this morning. Grosjean finished the second session in ninth place with a
fastest time of 1m 39.142s completing 32 laps. Speaking following the session
the Frenchman stated:
‘Obviously I’d have preferred
to be in the car for both sessions but we had a good afternoon and we’re always
happy to see a top ten lap time. We completed a good number of laps and the car
feels basically pretty strong. As always, we’ve got some areas we can improve
on but we’ve made a good start.’
In the opening practice session this morning, Palmer
finished in 15th place completing 25 laps in the E23 Hybrid.
Speaking following the session, the GP2 champion commented saying:
‘I've been waiting to get my
hands on the E23 during a Grand Prix weekend and the experience didn't disappoint.
The track was quite green which provided its own set of slippery challenges and
I had to learn the circuit quickly as I hadn't driven in Shanghai before but
overall I'm happy with P15. I was able to complete a decent tally of laps and
test the limits of grip on a couple of occasions on the fresh track. It was
great to be out on track and mixing it on a Grand Prix weekend.’
The Lotus F1 Team’s Trackside Operations Director Alan
Permane stated:
‘A solid day for us with no
issues to report. Jolyon did a great job for the first time in the car in an
official practice session and ended the session just outside the top ten and
only six tenths off of Pastor’s lap time so that was a strong first effort.
Both Pastor and Romain made good progress with their set-ups and there’s
further time to be found. We’re looking forward to seeing what’s possible
tomorrow.’
It was a fantastic session for the McLaren Honda F1 Team as
Jenson Button rounded out the top ten. The 2009 world champion completed 29
laps with a fastest time of 1m 39.275s. The Lotus F1 Team’s Pastor Maldonado
finished the session in eleventh place. The Venezuelan completed 30 laps with a
fastest time of 1m 39.444s. Speaking following the session, he stated:
‘I didn’t feel 100% happy
with the car for all of today, but we made good progress on getting the set-up
where I want it so it’s been a good day. The weather’s been pretty good here
and certainly better than some of the forecasts we saw earlier in the week.
It’s a fun circuit to drive with some good challenges and I think we should
have a strong car for tomorrow’s qualifying.’
Fernando Alonso ended the day in 12th place in
the second McLaren Honda MP4-30. The Spaniard completed 27 laps with a fastest
time of 1m 39.743s. The Sauber F1 Team’s Marcus Ericsson ended the day in 13th
place completing 33 laps with a fastest time of 1m 39.751s. Speaking following
the session, the Swede stated:
‘It has been a decent day. I
did plenty of laps working through the planned programme. I think I had been
struggling a bit to get a good feeling for the car on new tyres. However, on
used tyres during the race simulation at the end of the day we were quite
competitive, and I felt comfortable, which is promising for the race. Now, we
need to fine tune the set-up of the car overnight to make sure of having a good
qualifying tomorrow.’
The Scuderia Toro Rosso pairing of Max Verstappen and Carlos
Sainz ended the session in 14th and 15th place respectively.
Verstappen completed 32 laps with a fastest time of 1n 39.894s while Carlos
Sainz completed 28 laps with a fastest time of 1m 39.971s.
Sahara Force India Formula One Team’s Nico Hulkenberg was 16th
fastest time. The German completed 28 laps with a fastest time of 1m 40.151s.
Speaking following the session, the Hulk stated:
‘It was a straightforward
Friday in which we were able to get through our programme as planned. The
majority of our work was on the tyres and on car balance, which should offer us
a base to work from for the rest of the weekend. We were able to run with some
test items in the morning and hopefully this will give the team plenty of data
to process and analyse. I definitely think there is some interesting stuff
going forward. We obviously have some work to do in order to extract some more
performance from the car, especially as we switch between the different tyre
compounds, but that should be the main focus for us tonight.’
The Williams Martini Racing Team’s Felipe Massa suffered some
sort of problem with his FW37. The Brazilian slid off the track and broke his
front wing. Speaking following the session the Brazilian stated:
‘The first session went to plan, but this
afternoon we had a few issues with the rear wing. Under braking I lost all grip
in the rear tyres and as a result the car spun which put me out for the rest of
the session. We lost a lot of time, but the team made the changes to Valtteri’s
rear wing so the same wouldn’t happen to him. We need to have a strong day
tomorrow to set ourselves up well for the race.’
Williams Martini Racing Team’s Head of Performance
Engineering stated:
‘We completed the majority of our plan
today, unfortunately we didn’t get all the data we would have liked to due to
Felipe’s spin in the second session. The spin was caused by a rear wing stall
which was easy to rectify so we were confident when sending Valtteri back out.
The data and driver feedback from the new parts we have installed seem
positive, but there is still more work to do to see where we are in comparison
to our rivals ahead of qualifying and the race.’
The Sahara Force India Formula One Team’s Sergio ‘Checco’
Perez ended the day in 18th place, completing 24 laps with a fastest
time of 1m 40.868s. Speaking following the session, the Mexican commented
saying:
‘Today was not the easiest of
days for me, especially the afternoon session, but at least the conditions out
on track were quite consistent. We had to abort my first run on the option
tyres and, when we went to resume it, there was a lot of traffic, which made it
difficult to learn about our single-lap performance. It is something we will
need to focus on tomorrow morning ahead of qualifying. On the other hand, we
were able to fit in a longer run on the prime tyres, which gives us useful
information for Sunday.’
Sahara Force India Deputy Team Principal Robert Fernley
stated:
‘It was a very busy Friday for
the team and, despite a few minor technical issues that needed addressing, we
were able to complete a solid amount of laps. We had the opportunity to test a
few new parts that have been created as part of the VJM08's development process
and we will need to analyse their impact on the car's performance tonight. The
tyre programmes went largely to plan so on that front we should have the
necessary information to help our race preparations. We have a lot of work
ahead of us tonight and we will push hard to turn what we learned today into
performance.’
The Manor F1 Team’s Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi rounded
out the time sheets. Stevens had a difficult day as he suffered a power unit
issue. Free Practice Three gets underway at the Shanghai International Circuit
tomorrow morning from 5AM Irish time.
© Ben Johnston 2015
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