Brawn GP's Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello were in action at theShanghai International Circuit today in the first of the practice sessionsahead of Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix.
After completing early installation laps, the first practice session reallygot underway for the team after thirty minutes with Jenson and Rubensbeginning their respective Friday programmes. For the remaining hour of thesession, the pair worked on the balance of their BGP 001 cars andfine-tuning the set-up to the demands of the 5.451km track.
In second practice this afternoon, the team concentrated on evaluating thesuper soft and medium Bridgestone Potenza tyre compounds available for thisweekend. Jenson and Rubens each completed 35 laps over longer runs to endthe day with Jenson at the top of the timesheets and Rubens in thirdposition just two-tenths behind.
RESULTS
Drivers Car No. Chassis No. Free Practice 1Free Practice 2 Jenson Button 22 BGP 001-02 18 laps 01:37.450P2 35 laps 01:35.679 P1 Rubens Barrichello 23 BGP 001-01 19 laps 01:37.566P3 35 laps 01:35.881 P3
Weather Sunny Temperatures Air: 16-20°C Track: 26-34°C
JENSON BUTTON"The balance of the car really improved over the last couple of runs todayafter we had been struggling a little to find the right set-up early on. Wecompleted a great deal of work with the two very different tyre compounds toestablish what condition they would be in after longer runs. There seemed tobe a lot of traffic on track today so my main concern was finding some clearair. It was a useful first day of running but we still have some work to dotomorrow to be happy with the balance for qualifying."
RUBENS BARRICHELLO"Another positive Friday and we achieved some good work today which will setus up well going into the weekend. Our main focus was on the tyres andevaluating the best way of looking after the softer option tyre and it wasvery useful to find out what the tyres are capable of. We tried variousthings but I did struggle for grip with my last set of tyres this afternoon.There are a lot of marbles on the track at the moment but it should clean upgoing into the weekend."
ROSS BRAWN"We have had a productive day which has enabled us to complete a thoroughevaluation of the prime and option tyres ahead of the weekend. Our mainfocus was on the softer option tyre and establishing the best way to workwith this compound in qualifying and the race. Although we are not quitesatisfied with the balance yet, the car worked well in the coolertemperatures that we are experiencing this weekend with the race takingplace six months earlier than usual."
