Nov 25, 2011
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So that was it then, the final Friday fling of 2011. For Scuderia Toro Rosso, it was another three driver-two car day, so a lot of work to get through and fortunately, yet again, as part of its 2012 development plan, Pirelli supplied some experimental Hard compound tyres for all drivers to assess today, as well as the Medium and Soft compounds that will be used for the rest of the weekend. So there was no shortage of rubber to restrict our laps. After ninety minutes in the morning, it was time to say au revoir to Jean-Eric Vergne, as “Jev” completed his final Friday morning stint with us, taking over Sébastien Buemi’s car. The Swiss driver slipped into the cockpit in the afternoon, to record the fifteenth fastest time of the day, one place ahead of Jaime Alguersuari in the other TR6.
Lewis Hamilton was quickest for McLaren, ahead of this year’s world champion, Sebastian Vettel and his Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber. Fourth was Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari, ahead of Michael Schumacher for Mercedes, with local hero Felipe Massa completing the top six in the second Prancing Horse.
Despite the privilege of working in Formula 1, complaining about stuff is a popular paddock pastime and in Brazil, moaning about the cramped Interlagos paddock facilities has been a favourite hobby horse for complainers for many years now. However, now that there’s talk of the paddock being bulldozed and a new one built in its place or relocated to the back straight, would you believe it, everyone is saying it should be kept the way it is to maintain the circuit’s “character.” There is no pleasing some people.
One complaint about the facilities at the Carlos Pace circuit is the lack of protection from the elements in the event of rain and the wet stuff is indeed forecast to arrive on race day, so even if it’s dry tomorrow for the all important qualifying session, as Jaime pointed out after practice, it might be a case of gambling on running a wet-biased set-up to be in the best possible shape for Sunday afternoon’s season finale.
Credit: Scuderia Toro Rosso (www.scuderiatororosso.com)
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