Reasonable start for Force India

Adrian Sutil, P1/9th  P2/14th“Today was a reasonable start to the weekend with no major problems and some solid running in both sessions. We ran through our usual programme of long and shorter runs and tyre work and got lots of information to work on tonight. Unusually for here the surface was quite grippy, even in the morning, so we didn't need to wait for it to rubber in to get the tyre comparison data. We also had some new items to test and the car felt consistent and balanced, even if there wasn't such a huge improvement in time, maybe half a tenth or so. Let's see what we can do tomorrow: the weather conditions for qualifying look to be a bit mixed so it could be an opportunity to show well.”

Vitantonio Liuzzi, P1/16th  P2/16th “Overall it went pretty well today over the two sessions. We still need to understand a bit more about the set-up as this is a difficult track to get right with the long straights and then the twisty middle section - you need to get the right compromise between the downforce levels. We also had an issue with the switchable rear wing in the morning but we sorted it for the afternoon. We could go some way into understanding the tyre performance but we've got a bit of work to do on the balance to get everything right, although on the positive side we know there's still more to come from us.”

Dominic Harlow, Force India chief race engineer “A trouble-free day for both cars, well executed programmes and good quality data. We've a few decisions to take overnight with respect to set up and some of the aero changes we evaluated today. The rest of the weekend will be tactically an interesting challenge for us with compromises for qualifying and the race to be weighed up.”


Related Motorsport Articles

85,797 articles