2011 Belgian Grand Prix Free Practice Report – 26 August
Friday ,26 August 2011
We knew it was going to be wet today, but hoped the rain would not arrive until the afternoon, which is why I drove FP1 and Nico drove FP2. As it happened the morning was wet with quite a heavy shower early on, which made the track wet for nearly the whole session. I started on wets, but quickly changed to intermediates and worked on improving the balance.
FP1 objectives:
Comparison of wet and intermediate tyres
FP2 objectives:
Comparison of medium and soft tyres
Adrian Sutil (VJM04/04)
FP1: P6 2:04.663 18 laps
FP2: Did Not Take Part
Adrian: “We knew it was going to be wet today, but hoped the rain would not arrive until the afternoon, which is why I drove FP1 and Nico drove FP2. As it happened the morning was wet with quite a heavy shower early on, which made the track wet for nearly the whole session. I started on wets, but quickly changed to intermediates and worked on improving the balance. There was a lot of understeer to begin with so we addressed that and made some changes to the aero balance. The track dried up towards the end of the morning, but there was not enough time to do a run on dry tyres. We seemed quick in the rain and P6 is a clear sign of where we want to be this weekend.”
Paul Di Resta (VJM04/02)
FP1: P20 2:13.058 8 laps
FP2: P9 1:51.751 9 laps
Paul: “Despite not completing a massive number of laps, I don’t think we’re in bad shape because I’ve managed to do running in both the wet and the dry. In the morning session I did laps on the intermediates and just made a small mistake towards the end of the session. During the lunch hour we took some precautionary steps and changed some parts on the car, which meant we were a little delayed getting out for the start of FP2. But I don’t think it cost us too much because we were on track when we needed to be and did the dry running. So I’m reasonably happy going into tomorrow, but it looks like this unsettled weather could hang around and make things tricky for the weekend.”
Nico Hulkenberg (VJM04/04)
FP1: Did Not Take Part
FP2: P8 1:51.725 18 laps
Nico: “Classic Spa weather today, but we still managed to do some valuable work by evaluating an aero part at the start of the session. By the time the track was dry I managed to do one lap on the medium tyre and a few on the softs, which is about as much as anybody managed today. The car felt okay and we just made little tweaks to the set-up, so I think things look promising for the rest of the weekend – whether it’s wet or dry.”
Dominic Harlow, Circuit Engineering Director
"By all accounts we got off quite lightly with the rain today: both sessions were affected but there was a brief dry window this afternoon. For the morning session we felt the forecast gave us justification to run both race drivers, with Nico in the car in FP2, but as it turned out there was a slightly drier window in that session. We managed to test a few aero items and generally the car seems to be performing okay in all conditions with just a little understeer to dial out. We will also hope to carry out some more dry running in FP3 before qualifying. It’s good to be back after the summer break and Spa has of course lost none of its unpredictability.”
Credit: Force India (www.forceindiaf1.com)
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