2008 Malaysian Grand Prix Free Practice Report
Adrian Sutil (car 20, VJM01/02):
FP1: 22nd 1:41.269 (5 laps)
FP2: 18th 1:37.614 (35 laps)
Giancarlo Fisichella (car 21, VJM01/05):
FP1: 19th 1:39.046 (21 laps)
FP2: 9th 1:36.756 (37 laps)
The Force India Formula One Team has completed a productive
opening day of practice for this weekend's Malaysian Grand
Prix held at the Sepang International Circuit close to the
capital city Kuala Lumpur. For the second consecutive event,
Giancarlo Fisichella secured a top 10 time, just under two
seconds from the fastest lap recorded by Lewis Hamilton.
Giancarlo and team-mate Adrian Sutil worked through a programme
of set-up, tyre testing and data accumulation on the new aero
updates introduced for this weekend, putting in 98 laps of
the 5.543km track between them.
Adrian had a more difficult day as he was only able to complete
five laps in the morning session after his car developed an
engine problem that caused him to stop out on track. He put
in 35 laps in the later session, but struggled to find a good
balance on the car after missing a large chunk of the morning
practice.
After a final practice session tomorrow, qualifying will
take place at 14:00hrs local time.
Adrian Sutil (car 20)
'This morning we had a problem with the engine and then the
second session in the afternoon was not so good. Again we
had problems with the new tyres - I don't know if it was the
car or the pressures, but we just can't get a time out of
the softer tyres. We have to look at this and improve for
tomorrow as I am not happy with today.'
Giancarlo Fisichella (car 21)
'We made a big improvement from the morning to the afternoon
session. This morning there was a lot of understeer and then
oversteer - it was really inconsistent but we made a big step
forward and the balance was a lot better in the second session.
It was more consistent and comfortable. Unfortunately when
I was doing my new tyre run Glock was going very slowly in
the middle of the last corner so I lost three tenths. It wasn't
acceptable, but thankfully it wasn't the qualifying session.'
Mike Gascoyne, chief technical officer
'A useful day. A difficult first session with low grip and
both cars having a lot of oversteer and an engine failure
on Adrian's car, which limited his running. We were however
able to analyse the reasons in the break and improve for the
second session. The long runs looked very good and we were
able to gather all the data we need. Once again we proved
we have a competitive car in that midfield pack and we just
have to get everything right for tomorrow to make sure we
can now get the best out of qualifying.'
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