(Mercedes AMG F1 Team)
Championship leader Nico Rosberg set the pace in this afternoon's Free Practice 2 ahead of Sunday's Italian Grand Prix in Monza. The German set a benchmark time of 1m 26.225s to finish the session just 0.061s ahead of team mate and championship rival Lewis Hamilton. The 2008 world champion ended the day P2 despite a late start to his session as a hydraulic problem meant that the team had difficulty firing up his car.
However it was the Ferrari team who pulled off the biggest surprise of the afternoon session as Kimi Raikkonen was best of the rest behind the Mercedes duo. The Finn set a fastest time which was just 0.106s behind Rosberg.
Raikkonen's Ferrari team mate Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest finishing the session just ahead of Williams Martini Racing's Valtteri Bottas. McLaren's Jenson Button was 6th fastest for the Woking based outfit who have shown signs of improvement so far in the early stages of the weekend. The 2009 world champion finished the session just ahead of reigning world champion Infiniti Red Bull Racing's Sebastian Vettel. Following today's running the German said:
'It was quite slippery out on track; this year’s cars are down on grip and we have minimum down force in Monza. It was a good day for us, we didn’t have any problems and were able to do a lot of laps and test some things. It’s important to get Friday right in order to be able to build on that for the rest of the weekend.
The tyres mean it should be a one stop race on Sunday, but we will see. I think some struggled to get them to work; there’s not so much different between the medium and hard tyres here. I think tomorrow should be better, as it should be warmer and the track will start rubbering in a bit. I felt a bit more in charge of the car today.
'It was quite slippery out on track; this year’s cars are down on grip and we have minimum down force in Monza. It was a good day for us, we didn’t have any problems and were able to do a lot of laps and test some things. It’s important to get Friday right in order to be able to build on that for the rest of the weekend.
The tyres mean it should be a one stop race on Sunday, but we will see. I think some struggled to get them to work; there’s not so much different between the medium and hard tyres here. I think tomorrow should be better, as it should be warmer and the track will start rubbering in a bit. I felt a bit more in charge of the car today.
Kevin Magnussen was 8th fastest in the second McLaren with the Dane ending the session just ahead of Felipe Massa in the Williams. Following his struggles this morning, Infiniti Red Bull Racing's Daniel Ricciardo rounded out the top ten. The Australian commented:
'We didn't get much running this morning due to an engine issue, but it was okay and we recovered well in the afternoon. The track's always fun here, for a track with so few corners it's very challenging and with the low downforce braking it’s very difficult. Obviously we want to be a bit further up, but I think we can chip away at it tomorrow, the Mercedes will be quick, but if we can sneak into the top 5 in qualifying then we'll have a good crack at the race. Getting temperature into the tyres is tricky, especially for the first timed lap.'
'We didn't get much running this morning due to an engine issue, but it was okay and we recovered well in the afternoon. The track's always fun here, for a track with so few corners it's very challenging and with the low downforce braking it’s very difficult. Obviously we want to be a bit further up, but I think we can chip away at it tomorrow, the Mercedes will be quick, but if we can sneak into the top 5 in qualifying then we'll have a good crack at the race. Getting temperature into the tyres is tricky, especially for the first timed lap.'
The Sahara Force India F1 Team duo of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg ended the day in 11th and 12th place respectively. Speaking following the session Perez who shared the first session with team test driver Daniel Juncadella commented:
'Today was a promising start for our weekend and we managed to do everything we had planned. We have good pace already, especially during the long runs, where we look competitive. Now it’s just a matter of getting everything right and having a good qualifying position tomorrow to make the most of our strengths.'
Nico Hulkenberg, who has confirmed that he will remain with the team next season commented:
'This morning was quite normal for a Friday, but the afternoon was a bit more difficult and it was not easy to find a nice rhythm. I just didn’t find the balance and harmony I was looking for and that showed in the lap times. So we need to dig deep into the data and see what we can improve for tomorrow. Apart from that it was a successful day with the tyre work and collecting the long-run data.'
Daniel Juncadella who finished this morning's session in 17th place said:
'I’m always happy to drive the car whenever there is an opportunity, but obviously my programme was very short today – just 30 minutes and one set of hard tyres. It was a chance for me to experience the car in the low downforce set-up, which actually felt better than I was expecting. The main job was to check the baseline set-up and make sure there was nothing major to change before Checo took over. After my install lap I also did some practice starts to give the team information on the clutch settings.'
Sahara F1 Team Chief Operating Officer Otmar Sznaufer commented on today's running saying:
'We had all three drivers in action today with Daniel spending the opening 30 minutes of free practice in Checo’s car. Considering the tight schedule, he did an excellent job of evaluating the set-up and completing the systems checks. His feedback and direction helped Sergio for the rest of the session. The remainder of the day was fairly straightforward for Nico and Checo, and we head into the weekend having done most of our homework in terms of data collection. The pace looks promising and with some more tweaks tonight we should be in good shape going into qualifying.'
'Today was a promising start for our weekend and we managed to do everything we had planned. We have good pace already, especially during the long runs, where we look competitive. Now it’s just a matter of getting everything right and having a good qualifying position tomorrow to make the most of our strengths.'
Nico Hulkenberg, who has confirmed that he will remain with the team next season commented:
'This morning was quite normal for a Friday, but the afternoon was a bit more difficult and it was not easy to find a nice rhythm. I just didn’t find the balance and harmony I was looking for and that showed in the lap times. So we need to dig deep into the data and see what we can improve for tomorrow. Apart from that it was a successful day with the tyre work and collecting the long-run data.'
Daniel Juncadella who finished this morning's session in 17th place said:
'I’m always happy to drive the car whenever there is an opportunity, but obviously my programme was very short today – just 30 minutes and one set of hard tyres. It was a chance for me to experience the car in the low downforce set-up, which actually felt better than I was expecting. The main job was to check the baseline set-up and make sure there was nothing major to change before Checo took over. After my install lap I also did some practice starts to give the team information on the clutch settings.'
Sahara F1 Team Chief Operating Officer Otmar Sznaufer commented on today's running saying:
'We had all three drivers in action today with Daniel spending the opening 30 minutes of free practice in Checo’s car. Considering the tight schedule, he did an excellent job of evaluating the set-up and completing the systems checks. His feedback and direction helped Sergio for the rest of the session. The remainder of the day was fairly straightforward for Nico and Checo, and we head into the weekend having done most of our homework in terms of data collection. The pace looks promising and with some more tweaks tonight we should be in good shape going into qualifying.'
Daniil Kvyat was 13th fastest for the Scuderia Toro Rosso team while the Sauber F1 Team's Esteban Gutierrez ended the session in 14th place just ahead of Jean Eric Vergne in the second Toro Rosso. Speaking after the session Gutierrez said:
'In the morning we went through our planned programme. We tried different mechanical set-ups and changed the aero balance on the C33. At the beginning it was ok, but with the modifications that we made at the end of the first free practice I did not have a good feeling. In the afternoon we changed the modifications back again to the ones from the beginning of FP1, and the session was overall ok. I think we can still improve the car a bit further. We are looking into it for tomorrow, and we will also concentrate on the grip evolution.'
'In the morning we went through our planned programme. We tried different mechanical set-ups and changed the aero balance on the C33. At the beginning it was ok, but with the modifications that we made at the end of the first free practice I did not have a good feeling. In the afternoon we changed the modifications back again to the ones from the beginning of FP1, and the session was overall ok. I think we can still improve the car a bit further. We are looking into it for tomorrow, and we will also concentrate on the grip evolution.'
Adrian Sutil was 16th fastest in the second Sauber just ahead of the Marussia F1 Team's Jules Bianchi who finished the session just ahead of the Lotus F1 Team's Pastor Maldonado. Adrian Sutill stated:
'It was a good Friday. As I could not run in the first free practice, I was not driving much today. At the beginning it is always difficult to find a good rhthym. In general the second free practice was quite good, but I am not totally satisfied with the balance of the car yet. We have towork on having less understeer. On the other hand, we completed our planned programme without any issues.'
Giedo Van Der Garde was in the car this morning in place of Adrian Sutil and he commented:
'During the first two runs I struggled a lot with the balance of the car. We started with a very low downforce level, so, as a result, I had a lot of understeer, which was my main issue. Towards the end of FP1 we went to a rear wing with more downforce, and made some changes on the front wing. The lap times got better and I improved quite a lot. I think the car is more stable and has less understeer with this configuration, so I was more satisfied with the balance of the car at the end of the session.'
The Sauber F1 Team's head of track engineering Giampaolo Dall'Ara commented:
'“It was positive that we had no technical issues at all today, which enabled us to complete the planned programme. In the morning, Giedo did a rear wing comparison as well as some set-up work. He was able to give us some valuable information. Esteban’s programme was quite similar in the morning. In the afternoon Esteban and Adrian did some set-up work and race preparation with the tyre comparisons on low and high fuel loads.
The balance of the car is reasonable, however, there is still room for improvement. As expected, it was quite a challenge to get the tyres to work. With the hard compound it was not too bad, but the medium compound is quite difficult to handle. Overall, the performance was more or less where we could expect it on this type of track.”
'It was a good Friday. As I could not run in the first free practice, I was not driving much today. At the beginning it is always difficult to find a good rhthym. In general the second free practice was quite good, but I am not totally satisfied with the balance of the car yet. We have towork on having less understeer. On the other hand, we completed our planned programme without any issues.'
Giedo Van Der Garde was in the car this morning in place of Adrian Sutil and he commented:
'During the first two runs I struggled a lot with the balance of the car. We started with a very low downforce level, so, as a result, I had a lot of understeer, which was my main issue. Towards the end of FP1 we went to a rear wing with more downforce, and made some changes on the front wing. The lap times got better and I improved quite a lot. I think the car is more stable and has less understeer with this configuration, so I was more satisfied with the balance of the car at the end of the session.'
The Sauber F1 Team's head of track engineering Giampaolo Dall'Ara commented:
'“It was positive that we had no technical issues at all today, which enabled us to complete the planned programme. In the morning, Giedo did a rear wing comparison as well as some set-up work. He was able to give us some valuable information. Esteban’s programme was quite similar in the morning. In the afternoon Esteban and Adrian did some set-up work and race preparation with the tyre comparisons on low and high fuel loads.
The balance of the car is reasonable, however, there is still room for improvement. As expected, it was quite a challenge to get the tyres to work. With the hard compound it was not too bad, but the medium compound is quite difficult to handle. Overall, the performance was more or less where we could expect it on this type of track.”
Max Chilton was 18th fastest in the second Marussia finishing the session just ahead of Romain Grosjean in the second Lotus. The Frenchman returned to action after making room for the Enstone outfit's test and reserve driver Charles Pic.
Kamui Kobayashi who returns to the cockpit for the Caterham F1 Team after sitting out the Belgian Grand Prix last time out finished the session just ahead of team mate Marcus Ericsson.
Free Practice three gets underway tomorrow morning at 10AM (UK time)
© Ben Johnston 2014
No comments:
Post a Comment