Friday analysis - more to come from McLaren? 09 Jul 2010
Everybody focused on learning the new sections of Silverstone’s very green Arena circuit on Friday, and doing the usual tyre comparisons. It didn’t help that the track temperature rose from 28 degrees Celsius to 43 by the afternoon, as the ambient temperature rose from 21 to 27. McLaren did not show quite the pace many had expected with their newly-upgraded MP4-25, though many rivals suspect the championship leaders are yet to play their hand. We take a team-by-team look at Friday progress…
Red Bull
Mark Webber, 1m 32.747s, P4/1m 31.234s, P1
Sebastian Vettel, 1m 32.280s, P1/1m 31.875s, P3
Webber had an uneventful day until an electrical problem stymied him right at the end of the afternoon. He thought rivals were sandbagging. Vettel had a half spin out of Stowe in the afternoon which flat-spotted his set of hard tyres. There was also a problem with the brake pedal which required attention. But overall both were satisfied with their days.
Ferrari
Fernando Alonso, 1m 34.490s, p13/1m 31.626s, P2
Felipe Massa, 1m 35.037s, P17/1m 32.099s, P4
Alonso said it was just another Friday and that he had expected to be competitive. He thought the new package from Valencia worked well at Silverstone. Massa said he’d had a good day and had tried a lot of aerodynamic configurations.
Mercedes GP
Nico Rosberg, 1m 33.318s, P6/1m 32.166s, P5
Michael Schumacher, 1m 33.955s, P9/1m 32.660s, P6
Rosberg said he made a decent start to the weekend and got a good aerodynamic optimisation done, while Schumacher also reported a reasonable day’s work.
Renault
Vitaly Petrov, 1m 34.365s, P12/1m 32.745s, P7
Robert Kubica, 1m 32.725s, P3/1m 33.019s, P11
Petrov said he was troubled by the bump at Abbey, but that he improved the balance of his R30 through the day. Kubica looked competitive in the morning, and that it had been a normal day as far as he was concerned.
McLaren
Lewis Hamilton, 1m 32.614s, P2/1m 32.757s, P8
Jenson Button, 1m 33.519s, P8/1m 33.200s, P13
Neither Button nor Hamilton felt they got the best out of their MP4-25s now that they have the blown diffusers. Button struggled for balance in particular, but Hamilton said they had not yet unlocked the potential of the new upgrade.
Force India
Adrian Sutil, 1m 32.968s, P5
Tonio Liuzzi (pm), 1m 33.728s, P15
Paul di Resta (am) 1m 34.580s, P14
Sutil liked the new section, but that after liking his VJM03 in the morning he was troubled by oversteer as the temperature rose in the afternoon. Liuzzi had to stand down for Di Resta in the morning, then worked on set-up in the afternoon. He was pleased with his pace relative to Sutil, but feared either a tired engine or a possible F-duct fault when he was consistently 5 km/h down on his team mate on the straights.
Williams
Rubens Barrichello, 1m 34.016s, P10/1m 32.967s, P10
Nico Hulkenberg, 1m 33.377s, P7/1m 33.164s, P12
Williams looked to be in good shape, with their blown diffuser. Barrichello said the bumps really, really surprised him, and that he wasn’t impressed. As a result the team had to make a lot of set-up changes on his car. Hulkenberg said his day was okay, except for a gearbox oil leak.
BMW Sauber
Kamui Kobayashi, 1m 34.710s, P15/1m 33.402s, P14
Pedro de la Rosa, 1m 34.901s, P16/1m 34.051s, P17
Kobayashi reported only mild understeer, but said that he needed to pick up pace everywhere. De la Rosa said he didn’t have an easy day, struggling with a front-end problem on his C29. It was worse in the very high-speed and low-speed corners, which made turn-in very difficult.
Toro Rosso
Sebastien Buemi, 1m 34.132s, P11/1m 33.836s, P16
Jaime Alguersuari 1m 35.318s, P18/1m 34.643s, P17
Buemi said it hadn’t been a bad day for Toro Rosso and that he had a good long run on the option tyre. Alguersuari spent the day learning a tough new circuit.
Lotus
Heikki Kovalainen, 1m 36.747s, P19/1m 35.465s, P19
Jarno Trulli (pm), 1m 42.901s, P24
Fairuz Fauzy (am) 1m 39.510s, P23
Kovalainen had a straightforward day apart from a minor power steering problem. Trulli had more wretched luck in the form of a gearbox problem, in the car that Fauzy had driven in the morning for 40 minutes after a lightning fast engine change soon after practice began.
Virgin
Lucas di Grassi, 1m 37.518s, P21/1m 36.237s, P20
Timo Glock, 1m 37.330s, P20/1m 36.553s, P21
Glock had a fuel leak in the morning which cost him virtually the whole hour and a half, and in the afternoon broke the front wing over a kerb, losing more time. Di Grassi said he had a productive day and did a lot of work with the new upgrades.
HRT
Karun Chandhok 1m 38.735s, P22/1m 37.019s, P22
Sakon Yamamoto, 1m 39.673s, P24/1m 38.303s, P23
Chandhok said he’d had a very productive day, changing the suspension settings to ride the bumps better and doing a good tyre comparison. Senna was disappointed to be stood down, as Yamamoto received a very welcome birthday present in getting the seat for the weekend. He spent the sessions acclimatising to the F110.
