“A big question mark is the weather. Precise predictions for rain are difficult here. I don’t have anything against normal rain – the opposite is the case – but even I don’t wish for a tropical downpour here for the race. If this happens you just don’t see anything and have too much aquaplaning.”
Mark Webber:
“We lost some running in the first session due to an engine failure. The second session went better and we got quite a few laps in, so we’ve got some good data to go through tonight. We still need to find more pace, though.”
Timo Glock:
“The car doesn’t feel too bad, but I haven’t yet got the most out of the tyres on the first lap. I’m also sliding a bit too much overall. I’m not sure what the problem is, so we will have to look into that overnight.
“Thankfully I have no lasting effects from last week’s crash and my hand feels fine. Our pace was strong last week and I have confidence in the new car, but we still have to work to improve. We are in a tight group of teams, so we have to get everything right to come away with a strong result.”
Adrian Sutil:
“This morning we had a problem with the engine, and then the second session in the afternoon was not so good. Again we had problems with the new tyres – I don’t know if it was the car or the pressures, but we just can’t get a time out of the softer tyres. We have to look at this and improve for tomorrow, as I am not happy with today.”
Sébastien Bourdais:
“This circuit is very nice and very fast, a really good track. However, there wasn’t much grip so it was difficult to get a full understanding of the situation. Then it was a case of moving forward step-by-step, waiting for the track to come to us.
“Unfortunately, this afternoon we had a gearbox problem right at the start after a ratio change, and this error on our part broke the engine. The car seemed not too bad this morning and we were planning to see how it felt on different tyres this afternoon, but it was not to be.”
Takuma Sato:
“It was another good Friday practice. Under the restricted mileage situation, we achieved most of the running we wanted. We had a little overheating issue, but we solved the problem on every outing and made steady progress.
