2007 French Grand Prix Free Practice Report
Adrian Sutil (car 20, F8-VII/03):
FP1: 22nd 1:18.419 (15 laps)
FP2: 21st 1:18.213 (32 laps)
Christijan Albers (car 21, F8-VII/02):
FP1: 21st 1:18.178 (28 laps)
FP2: 22nd 1:18.708 (9 laps)
Weather: Highs of 20 C ambient / 32 C track. Overcast skies.
The Etihad Aldar Spyker Formula One Team has concluded a
frustrating opening day of the French Grand Prix.
In the first of the two free practices this morning Adrian
Sutil suffered a hydraulic leak and lost the majority of the
one and a half hour session. He went back out on track towards
the end of the time to complete 15 laps, however ended the
practice three seconds from the fastest time. The German completed
a further 32 laps in the next practice, but could not find
a set-up balance to significantly better his time.
Christijan Albers was completing steady improvements in the
first session, but in the opening minutes of the second practice
the Dutchman ran over the kerbs on the exit to turn 12 and
badly damaged his F8-VII's chassis. Unable to switch to the
spare chassis as he had already completed laps in his race
car, Christijan was forced to watch the remaining time from
the sidelines.
With one further practice session tomorrow before Qualifying,
the team will hope for a marked improvement in fortunes.
Adrian Sutil (car 20)
'I am not happy with today, I cannot find a balance
I am happy with on the car. With one set-up I have a lot of
understeer and with another I have oversteer; it is difficult
to find a middle ground. We have a lot of work to do and we
have to check all the data and see what we can do for tomorrow.'
Christijan Albers (car 21)
'In the first session I was actually pretty happy with the
car and I think we were making some good progress, but in
the second session I touched the kerb on the exit of turn
12 and went straight ahead. Unfortunately this damaged the
car and I couldn't continue. I am disappointed as we still
had two new sets of tyres to use and we could have improved
the time. We did make some steps though and we will have to
see what will happen tomorrow.'
Mike Gascoyne, chief technical officer
'A pretty difficult day for us. Both drivers were struggling
with the balance of the car and to put together consistent
laps. Adrian lost a lot of time in the morning with a hydraulic
leak but in the afternoon we improved the balance, although
there is still a lot to work on. With Christijan we had a
fairly good session early on, but then on the second run in
the second session he made a mistake at turn 12 and damaged
the chassis. We will now have to change that chassis tonight
for him to be able to run tomorrow, so overall there is a
lot to do to improve.'
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