Fri: Red Bull, Lotus, Ferrari, Merc

It was another good day for Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull as the German set the fastest time in both sessions…

It was another good day for Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull as the German set the fastest time in both sessions.

Red Bull
Sebastian Vettel:“The car feels okay, but there’s always a lot of work to do and there’s some room for improvement. My long run wasn’t completely clean, as we had to abort it at the start due to the brakes being a bit hot, but you work to find the limit. I don’t think the tyres feel massively different, but they are a step in the right direction.”

Mark Webber: “The tyres feel quite similar to those used previously; we got a feeling already from Silverstone. It went well today and I’m happy, the car felt good and the team did a great job. Sunday is the main thing; qualifying is important, but Sunday is what we have to focus on. It’s a demanding circuit and the conditions are set to stay the same, so I don’t think we’ll be changing a huge amount tonight.”

Lotus
Romain Grosjean: “It’s been a good day overall. I didn’t get to try the new tyres at Silverstone so the main focus was to work on getting the most from them which all went ok. To be honest they’re not really night and day from the old ones, which is good as it means we haven’t had to change too much. There’s still a bit of graining and degradation to deal with but that’s normal. Our pace looks pretty good on both compounds, but the field is quite close so it’s hard to say where we are. We’ll just keep doing our best to find the right compromise for qualifying and the race and see where we stand at the end of the weekend.”

Kimi Raikkonen: “It wasn’t ideal today but it wasn’t that bad either. We took a bit of time to understand the new tyres and it was
also very hot. It’s too early to say if the heat will suit us with these new tyres, but we’ll soon have a better idea. I had some traffic in the afternoon and so wasn’t able to set a fast lap on new tyres, plus we have some areas to improve on with the setup. We’ll try to do the best that we can in qualifying and we’ll see where we are. If we get the car right we should be ok tomorrow.”

Ferrari
Fernando Alonso: “As usually happens on Friday, today we managed to get an idea of what sort of pace we should see in Sunday’s race. Conditions look like being reasonably stable over the whole weekend and this will help in analysing the times and strategies of the other teams, in order to understand exactly where we are. The type of tyre has not changed, so we can count on last year’s experience and apart from that, they are the same for everyone. To gain an advantage over our rivals, it helps to understand them as well and as quickly as possible. Here, more than at other tracks, starting from the front is extremely important and for this reason I believe that everyone will try and optimise their cars for qualifying, even if it means sacrificing a bit for the race.”

Felipe Massa:“All went well today and we tested everything on the programme, with the car seeming reasonably competitive. Even the long runs produced positive results and that is a very important factor for the rest of the weekend. Now we must decide which of the solutions we tried can be used for qualifying and the race. On this track, it’s really important to start as far up the order as possible and we will do all we can to be in the game. On Sunday, it will be difficult for everyone, as overtaking is almost impossible here and on top of that, they are predicting very high temperatures, which is a factor that needs to be given plenty of consideration when it comes to getting the maximum out of our car.”

Mercedes
Lewis Hamilton: “We got a lot of laps in on the new tyres today which was positive and gives us a lot of information to look at and take into our programme for the weekend. We came into the weekend on the back foot a little without experiencing the new tyres. The balance feels different and we need to work on the right set up but we learned over the course of the day, made some changes and will make more for tomorrow. It’s difficult to know how the weekend will go for us. Others look quick here but we can generally pull a bit more out in qualifying so let’s see how tomorrow goes.”

Nico Rosberg: “That was a busy day for us and we learned a lot in the two practice sessions. We know that it’s quite challenging for our car in these hot conditions and we also had to learn about the new tyres for the first time today. I’m pleased with the progress that we made today but some of the other teams look quick here so we have more work to do. Tyre overheating is still an issue but I’m confident that we will be able to find a good set up and hopefully achieve a decent result this weekend.”