Formula One
JAPANESE GP – FRIDAY PRACTICE DRIVER QUOTES-
Kimi Räikkönen, : “We didn’t get much running because of the issue with the KERS, but at least it happened today and we got it fixed. It wasn’t ideal for helping us find the best setup but there’s nothing you can do about these things. Suzuka is not the easiest place to get the car set up, but we still have tomorrow’s practice before qualifying. I think we have the potential to be nearer the front than we have done in the last couple of races.”
Romain Grosjean: “Not a bad day overall. The car felt much better in the afternoon than it did this morning ; we’re still not quite where we want to be but the team has been working hard and hopefully we’ll make a similar step forward tomorrow. Suzuka is not an easy track on the car ; the demands on the tyres are really high but the car felt consistent with both compounds which is a big positive. It’s hard to say if P6 is the kind of position we’ll be in qualifying ; there are definitely still a few tenths we can find so let’s see what happens tomorrow.”
Mark Webber :“It was a nice change to get some good weather; it’s been the first dry weekend for a while. We have plenty to go through this evening, it was a smooth one for us today and we completed all the runs we wanted to. It’s a challenging venue in terms of balance here, but the car ran well and we tested both tyres. We have areas where we can improve, mostly with the balance, so we have some work to do. Suzuka is a great track that’s remained untouched for a long time, it’s a classic.”
Sebastian Vettel: “The car’s performing, but there are still some things we can improve. It was a bit nervous this morning, better this afternoon, but we need to make a step overnight. I think tomorrow will be very, very close, so everything we can get out of the car will matter. This circuit is so special; you have the people everywhere who are so passionate about F1 – almost crazy in a good way – and the track is fantastic, you have such nice high speed corners one after the other. It’s so enjoyable, you don’t want to come into the pits, but want to stay out on track.“
Bruno Senna: It was an interesting day as we learnt a lot of things about the testing we’ve been doing. Missing the morning session was difficult as we were fine tuning the car set-up to suit my driving style, but we had a clean session completing plenty of laps and so overall it was good experience.
Pastor Maldonado: We completed our programme today but we still have a lot of work to do. The car is looking consistent and our longer run pace was good. We still need to find some more performance ahead of qualifying so we’ll now work through all the data we have gathered.
Valtteri Bottas: Suzuka is a new track for me so it wasn’t an easy session and it took quite a few laps to get into the rhythm. In the first run, the car balance wasn’t ideal but we managed to improve the car for the second and third runs. I was also improving myself throughout the session. I think I have a new favourite track as Suzuka is fantastic to drive. It’s challenging and very quick which makes it great fun
Nico Hulkenberg: “Quite a smooth Friday for me and nice to have two dry sessions with consistent weather. We went through the programme and did all the things we wanted to with no issues. I’m quite happy with the car on low fuel, but I think we still have some work to do to improve our high fuel performance. We took our usual approach with the tyres and did long runs on the hard and soft compounds, so we have lots of information to help us for the race.”
Paul Di Resta : “The morning session was straightforward and the balance was good straight after lunch with the changes we had made to the car. Unfortunately I made a mistake quite early on and was probably a bit too ambitious. I found myself with my two right side wheels on the grass and lost grip on the loose dirt. It’s a shame it had to happen so early in the session and it creates extra work for the guys tonight. You have to be on the edge to feel what the car is doing and sometimes these things happen, but hopefully it won’t cost us too much for the rest of the weekend.”