2007 Spanish GP, Friday - 11 MAY 2007
The ING Renault F1 Team made a solid and reliable start to
the Spanish Grand Prix weekend today at Barcelona's Circuit
de Catalunya.
Giancarlo Fisichella
Free Practice 1: P15, 1:23.397, 21 laps
Free Practice 2: P2, 1:21.684, 39 laps
Fastest Lap on Hard Tyre: 1:23.114
Fastest Lap on Soft Tyre: 1:21.684
Heikki Kovalainen
Free Practice 1: P14, 1:23.322, 24 laps
Free Practice 2: P3, 1:21.966, 38 laps
Fastest Lap on Hard Tyre: 1:23.351
Fastest Lap on Soft Tyre: 1:21.966
Both drivers completed their planned programmes without
any problems, working on set-up evaluation and comparing the
two compounds of Bridgestone Potenza tyre (Medium and Hard)
available to them this weekend. Each driver completed nearly
300 km and made good progress improving the set-up of the
car, in conditions that are significantly different to those
encountered during last week's test. Today's successful programme
will provide a good baseline for the drivers to work from
during tomorrow morning's final practice session, before heading
into qualifying.
Giancarlo Fisichella
It was a normal day for us: we planned a busy programme, and
completed everything without any problems at all. As we made
changes to the car, we managed to improve the set-up a little
bit, but the handling is still slightly inconsistent. But
to be honest, that is what we expect at the moment. My feeling
is that we are possibly a little bit closer to the cars in
front of us, even if we are clearly not fast enough to be
second in the times on speed alone. As always, we have to
remember this is only Friday, so we need to wait and see what
happens tomorrow. The fight between the midfield teams is
extremely close, and we will need to push to the limit tomorrow
to get a good grid position.
Heikki Kovalainen
I think it was a positive start to our weekend to be honest.
We did our programme, everything ran smoothly, and we improved
the car balance a bit from where we started. So we have a
good starting point for tomorrow in the final practice session.
I had a spin at the end of the session, but it was nothing
serious – I was pushing hard on a timed lap and ran
wide behind a Red Bull, and lost control. But that's the way
I drive, attacking all the time, and we will keep on pushing
tomorrow. The target has to be to qualify in the top ten but,
just like at the last three races, it is going to be tough.
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering
In spite of the fact that we tested at this circuit only last
week, the track temperatures we have encountered today, and
forecast for the rest of the weekend, are around 20°C
higher than they were at the end of the test. Barcelona is
well-known as a sensitive circuit where small rises in temperature
can have a big impact on a car's behaviour. A change as big
as 20°C means we have to run quite a different set-up
to what we used last week and, as a result, we ran a completely
normal Friday programme today. It is obvious that our final
laps were done with a lower fuel load as part of our planned
technical checks, and that our positions are therefore unrepresentatively
high in the timesheets. However, our pace on the long runs
seems to show that the status quo has not changed much since
Bahrain.
Denis Chevrier, Head of Engine Track Operations
From the engine team's point of view, it was a normal, trouble-free
day. Both cars came close to their nominal target mileage
of 300 km, and our focus was very much on tuning the engine
performance in this weekend's hotter conditions. A quick look
at the timesheets shows that less than a second separated
P3 from P15 in today's second session. When the competition
is so close, every hundredth of a second counts – and
that means the fine-tuning we conducted today is of capital
importance for the rest of the weekend. We have a solid platform
to work from now, and will look to build on this tomorrow.
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