Fri: McLaren, FIndia, Williams, Sauber

Editor 26 Oct 2012 2:39 PM

There were top ten times in Friday’s Indian GP practice for both McLaren drivers, Nico Hulkenberg and Bruno Senna…

There were top ten times in Friday’s Indian GP practice for both McLaren drivers, Nico Hulkenberg and Bruno Senna…

McLaren:
Lewis Hamilton: “It was quite a positive day – on my side of the garage, at least. The car felt quite good, but to get the best from the tyres each lap wasn’t so easy. We’re not quite quick enough yet, but tyre durability and our long-run pace both looked quite good. In fact, I was very happy with the long run. If we continue in that direction, we’ll hopefully be strong in the race. I think we’re probably quick enough to qualify third or fourth fastest at the moment, but, to go for pole, we’re going to really need to push hard in our development work tonight. It looks like it’ll be another close race.”

Jenson Button: “It hasn’t been a perfect day. Our lap-times in the first session were okay, but we couldn’t really get the Option [tyre] working in FP2 – perhaps that was down to a temperature issue. Then I had a gearshift problem during my long run in the afternoon. The team is currently looking into it – hopefully, we’ll have it sorted by tomorrow. Still, I think Lewis’s long-run pace looks promising. We’re still a few tenths shy of the very fastest cars, but I think we’re more competitive on long runs than we are on short runs, where we’re slightly struggling to get the tyres working. Fortunately, this is a good circuit for overtaking, but our aim is obviously still to qualify as close to the front as possible.”

Force India:
Nico Hulkenberg: “It was my first experience of the Buddh circuit today and I have to say they have done a really nice job. There’s a good flow to the lap and the second sector is very technical and challenging. The programme for me today was quite straightforward because we managed to do everything we wanted. I completed a decent long run on the soft tyres this afternoon and I think we are quite well prepared going into tomorrow.”

Paul di Resta: “It was not an easy session for me. The balance is still not perfect and we need to work hard tonight to try and improve that before final practice. The main issue of the day was the puncture I picked up half-way through FP2 because I missed out on my high-fuel run on the soft tyres. Also, it was hard to get a clean lap during my low fuel run because the track was so busy. We’ve got data with the other car but it would have been helpful to have run more laps and got a proper feel for the soft.”

Williams:
Bruno Senna: “We were working hard to get the optimum car set-up today so we had to try a number of things to get the right balance during the second session. On the whole we have had a very productive day and completed what we had set out to do. Now we need to work on improving our set-up ahead of tomorrow’s qualifying.”

Pastor Maldonado: “Today the pace wasn’t quite where we want it to be for qualifying so we will have to work hard and analyse where we can improve to give us the sort of one-lap pace that will get us into Q3. Our long runs continue to be strong though, like they have been all season, so that’s encouraging for the race itself.”

Sauber:
Sergio Perez: “For me the second practice was as difficult as expected in terms of finding a good set up for a single lap, but I think we look quite good when it comes to covering the race distance. Of course I didn’t get the mileage I wanted today because I could not take part in the first practice session, but, despite this, it was a productive day for the team and we have enough information to make the most out of our chances.”

Kamui Kobayashi: “I found it difficult today to find any grip. I can’t really say whether this is down to the dust on the circuit, the tyres or the car. Most probably it is a combination of all those factors and we have to find the best way to improve. This goes especially for when we run low fuel, although I didn’t do that many laps with a lighter car. I spent a lot of time running on a high fuel load and I think we are doing fine with the heavier car. We have to work now, but also to consider that anyway the grip level of the track will improve.”