Friday analysis - Ferrari maintain their momentum
The weather conditions were very cold, with a maximum of 14 degrees Celsius, which caused several drivers problems generating enough heat in their Pirelli tyres, and as everyone refocused on optimising their cars around off-throttle blown diffusers once again the usual suspects were generally in their usual places…
Red Bull
Mark Webber, 1m 32.217s, P2/1m 31.711s, P1
Sebastian Vettel, 1m 32.268s, P3/1m 32.084s, P3
No problems in the Red Bull camp, where Webber said he was pretty happy and Vettel said his RB7 wasn’t quite 100 percent yet. Overall, with first and third fastest times, a good start to the Milton Keynes team’s weekend.
Ferrari
Fernando Alonso, 1m 31.894s, P1/1m 31.879s, P2
Felipe Massa, 1m 32.681s, P4/1m 32.354s, P4
Alonso was quite happy with progress, especially as he was close to Red Bull despite the cold weather which particularly doesn’t suit the Ferrari. He had a minor incident with Schumacher when he had to brake as the German didn’t see him coming. Massa as usual struggled a little more than the Spaniard generating heat in his tyres. Altogether, a promising day for the Scuderia.
Mercedes
Michael Schumacher, 1m 33.863s, P10/1m 32.411s, P5
Nico Rosberg, 1m 33.787s, P7/1m 32.557s, P6
Both drivers said they were happy with the day’s progress, which revolved around taking further steps forward as they enhanced the revised aero set-up debuted at Silverstone.
McLaren
Lewis Hamilton, 1m 32.996s, P5/1m 32.724s, P7
Jenson Button, 1m 33.628s, P6/1m 33.225s, P11
Hamilton said that he was happy with his long run pace which was better than Silverstone, and with updates that were working. Button was frustrated, struggling to balance the car in the morning, suffering KERS problems in the afternoon, then having problems with an experimental exhaust system. Red Bull and Ferrari, however, are watching McLaren carefully and expect more from them tomorrow.
Renault
Nick Heidfeld, 1m 35.444s, P15/1m 33.098s, P8
Vitaly Petrov, 1m 34.094s, P11/1m 33.133s, P9
Renault had a lot of changes on the R31. Heidfeld ran a rearward exiting exhaust for the first time and a complementary rear floor. Petrov tried a new front floor and front wing, but suffered from a water leak in the afternoon which necessitated a new radiator. The team said they gathered plenty of data to enable them to choose which exhaust system to run for qualifying and the race.
Force India
Adrian Sutil, 1m 33.832s, P8/1m 33.211s, P10
Paul di Resta (pm only), 1m 33.299s, P12
Nico Hulkenberg (am only) 1m 33.858s, P9
Sutil tried a new floor in the morning as Hulkenberg stayed with the old one, but the latter lost his KERS for the first run which skewed the findings a little. Sutil complained of understeer. Di Resta got his car back for the afternoon and worked on braking stability in his first run on the full Grand Prix circuit.
Sauber
Sergio Perez 1m 36.371s, P16/1m 34.113s, P13
Kamui Kobayashi, 1m 36.882s, P19/1m 34.491s, P16
Both drivers did aero work on the primes in the morning, but said they were struggling for grip on the options in the afternoon.
Williams
Rubens Barrichello, 1m 35.389s, P14/1m 34.344s, P14
Pastor Maldonado, 1m 36.842s, P18/1m 34.996s, P17
Barrichello and Maldonado worked on evaluating new front and rear wings and suspension, but technical director Sam Michael said that more work was needed.
Toro Rosso
Jaime Alguersuari, 1m 35.115s, P12/1m 34.487s, P15
Sebastien Buemi, 1m 35.371s, P13/No time
Alguersuari was happy enough with progress in race trim, but not so much for qualifying, but Buemi had a misfire in the morning which necessitated him missing the afternoon as the mechanics tried to pinpoint the cause.
Lotus
Heikki Kovalainen, 1m 36.392s, P17/1m 35.753s, P18
Karun Chandhok, 1m 38.765s, P21/1m 37.248s, P20
Chandhok replaced Trulli as race driver this weekend and flat-spotted plenty of tyres as he worked to get used to the brakes. Kovalainen did more laps than anyone and said he was really pleased with the day’s work.
Virgin
Timo Glock, 1m 40.109s, P23/1m 36.940s, P19
Jerome D'Ambrosio, 1m 40.428s, P24/1m 37.313s, P21
Virgin focused on aero work and only ran the prime tyres in the morning, and then got going better in the afternoon to move ahead of HRT.
HRT
Tonio Liuzzi (pm only), 1m 38.145s, P22
Narain Karthikeyan (am only) 1m 38.504s, P20
Daniel Ricciardo, 1m 39.279s, P22/1m 40.737s, P23
Karthikeyan made a reappearance as he and Liuzzi had a positive day sharing one car. Ricciardo had a good morning but stopped with an engine problem in the afternoon.
Credit: Formula One Administration Ltd (www.formula1.com)
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