2007 Turkish GP, Friday - 24 AUG 2007
The ING Renault F1 Team enjoyed a trouble-free opening day
of practice in Istanbul, completing nearly 100 laps in total
in spite of a twenty-five minute delay during second practice
following a red flag for a loose drain cover.
Giancarlo Fisichella (R27-05)
Free Practice 1: P8, 1:29.541, 19 laps
Free Practice 2: P12, 1:29.456, 28 laps
Heikki Kovalainen(R27-02, T-car)
Free Practice 1: P5, 1:29.346, 19 laps
Free Practice 2: P8, 1:29.025, 28 laps
As is usual during the three hours of Friday running, the
team focused on basic race set-up work, as well as conducting
a comparison of the two types of Bridgestone tyre (the hard
and medium compounds from the 2007 range) available this weekend.
Both drivers were reasonably pleased with the handling balance
of the R27, although there are still more improvements to
be made overnight, and feel they have made a positive start
to the weekend.
Heikki Kovalainen
I was quite happy with the balance from the first run this
morning, and we improved it all the way through the two sessions.
I had a yellow flag on my final run, which stopped me from
improving my time, but everybody had the same conditions.
The red flag meant we weren't able to do all of our set-up
changes, and there are still some improvements that we know
can be made to find more pace. It has been a positive start
to the weekend, I am happy with the car at this stage and
I know there is more performance to come tomorrow.
Giancarlo Fisichella
I had a small problem with the engine mapping on the final
run, which meant I wasn't able to get a good answer on the
final set-up changes, but otherwise there was nothing unusual
for me in either session. We had to change the programme round
a little bit after the red flag, but the situation was the
same for the other teams as well. The car balance is still
a little bit inconsistent, so there are areas for us to work
on overnight, but I think we seem to be in our usual position
in the bottom half of the top ten – and we have made
a good start.
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering
From the team's perspective, it was a pretty straightforward
day. The time we lost with the red flag meant that we had
to shift our programme around a little, which compromised
things slightly. Equally, the yellow flag in the first sector
at the end of the session prevented the drivers from improving
their times. But those were factors that every team had to
deal with, so we didn't lose anything in relative terms. Both
tyres are performing well at this demanding circuit, and the
drivers are pretty comfortable with the car.
Denis Chevrier, Head of Engine Track Operations
As always when visiting a circuit where we run only once a
year, there was plenty to do today, fine-tuning parameters
such as the engine mapping and gear ratios to extract maximum
performance from the RS27 engine. It was a trouble-free day,
and both engines performed well. The red flag during second
practice cost all of the teams some set-up time, and perhaps
on Sunday evening, that will prove to have been important.
From the team's point of view, though, this was a promising
start to the weekend, and we will hope to build on it to ensure
a strong qualifying performance tomorrow.
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