2007 Belgian Grand Prix, Friday - 14 SEP 2007
The ING Renault F1 Team completed a busy, productive opening
day of practice for the 2007 Belgian Grand Prix today at Spa-Francorchamps.
Giancarlo Fisichella (R27-02)
Free Practice 1: 1:49.380, 24 laps, P11
Free Practice 2: 1:48.086, 30 laps, P7
Heikki Kovalainen (R27-05, T-car)
Free Practice 1: 1:49.138, 21 laps, P9
Free Practice 2: 1:48.567, 38 laps, P10
On the first day of an important race weekend, which will
see the team's title partner and race sponsor ING host over
13,000 guests during its three days, team drivers Giancarlo
Fisichella and Heikki Kovalainen complete a total of 113 laps
– equivalent to two and a half race distances. As in
Monza, the objective was to run as many laps as possible in
order to establish good baseline set-ups, but also to take
full advantage of the free engine mileage during Friday practice,
given that Spa is second only to the Italian circuit in the
severity of the V8 engine's duty cycle. Both drivers made
consistent progress in improving the car's handling through
the two sessions, and while there is still work to do, they
are optimistic of a competitive showing tomorrow.
Giancarlo Fisichella
This was a good day for us. We got a good answer comparing
the two types of Bridgestone tyre, and in terms of the car's
handling and set-up, our situation is getting better and better.
There is still some work to do tonight after we have analysed
the data, but I think we can say "so far, so good"
at this point.
Heikki Kovalainen
We got a lot done today, working on the set-up and comparing
the two tyres. The timesheets didn't reflect the car's full
potential, because I had traffic on my quickest lap at the
end of the session, and I think there is more to come from
the set-up as well as I work with my engineers this evening.
I think we made a good start to our programme, and we can
continue in the same way tomorrow.
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering
We had two very good practice sessions today. The Spa-Francorchamps
circuit has some unusual demands, and we looked at these while
building on the work we did at the test here back in July.
The cars are running well, the balance is almost there and
the tyres are performing as expected. All in all, it was a
useful day.
Denis Chevrier, Head of Engine Track Operations
Although Monza is often talked about as the definitive test
of a Formula 1 engine, the demands of Spa are not to be underestimated.
The duty cycle is almost as severe as we saw last week, and
the challenge of Eau Rouge must also be negotiated 44 times
during the race, with the unusual vertical g loadings it imposes
on the engine and particularly its lubrication. In this context,
our July test was very useful, as we had not previously run
the V8 engine at this circuit, and we built upon our conclusions
during practice today. On Friday evening, we are used to saying
that the timesheets mean little, but this is even more true
at a circuit where the fuel mass penalty is so high –
and where relatively small differences in fuel load therefore
make a large difference to lap-time. We are happy with the
work we did today, though, and the car and engine both ran
reliably and competitively.
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