2007 British Grand Prix Free Practice Report
Adrian Sutil (car 20, F8-VII/03):
FP1: 20th 1:23.954 (25 laps)
FP2: 22nd 1:23.720 (30 laps)
Christijan Albers (car 21, F8-VII/04):
FP1: 22nd 1:24.172 (30 laps)
FP2: 21st 1:23.113 (35 laps)
Weather: Highs of 17 C ambient / 21 C track. Overcast skies,
light rain at points.
The Etihad Aldar Spyker Formula One Team has concluded a
productive opening day of its 'home' Grand Prix at Silverstone,
with Christijan Albers and Adrian Sutil completing over 600km
and finishing the day just over one second from the top 10.
Unfortunately the day was marred slightly in the last part
of the second session when Adrian Sutil ran wide at the first
corner, Copse, and into the barriers.
Under grey, cloudy skies Christijan completed 30 laps in
the first session and 35 in the latter as he evaluated set-ups
and the medium and hard Bridgestone Potenza tyres available
this weekend. Adrian similarly worked through his development
programme until his brush with the barriers brought his day
to a premature end.
After a final one hour practice session tomorrow morning,
Qualifying will start at 13:00 local time.
Adrian Sutil (car 20)
'We started off well in the beginning but then we had some
problems with the harder tyre compound that really did not
seem to work. Then we made some changes to the set-up but
the car had a lot of understeer and was very difficult to
drive. Then I lost it in Copse and crashed into the barriers,
but fortunately it was not a big incident. In the middle of
the second session a few drops of rain fell when I went out
on the hard tyres but it did not really affect the lap times,
maybe by only a couple of tenths. I hope we can improve tomorrow.'
Christijan Albers (car 21)
'We had a good day today. We could do some long runs to look
how the tyres react over longer distances and I was happier
with the balance. Although I'm still not really, really satisfied
with the set-up there is still another day tomorrow where
it's possible to improve. Hopefully it will go OK in Qualifying,'
Mike Gascoyne, chief technical officer
'A fairly productive day that was frustrated at the end by
the shunt. We had a reasonable balance over both sessions
and had no real mechanical issues on either cars, and the
good news is that we were reasonably competitive with the
group in front of us. Unfortunately though, Adrian has ensured
that our composite department will not be bored.'
|
