Saturday: Van der Garde again outpaces Pic at Caterham
Caterham aimed to outperform Marussia during qualifying at Monza and succeeded. Giedo van der Garde and Charles Pic were significantly faster than their rivals. The internal battle turned in favor of the Dutchman, just like at Spa-Francorchamps two weeks ago.
Giedo van der Garde – 19th and 19th:
The free practice 3 started off well for me. We still had a bit of understeer in sector 2 and there were too many front lock-ups, so we corrected that for the second stint. The real issue was managing the heating of the front tires, which is obviously critical to maximizing performance, but throughout the session, we continued to work on this point and by the performance stint, we were much more satisfied with our position.
During qualifying, we went out for two stints on mediums, going out early in the session for three timed laps, and the car felt good. There was still more to come from sector 1, and we added more front wing for the second stint, and in my first lap, I achieved it. A lap in 1:26 was what we were hoping for, so I’m really thrilled with my qualifying. It’s another session where I’m building my experience and confidence in the car, so I’m going into the race feeling really good.
Charles Pic – 18th and 20th:
The team worked very hard last night to analyze all the data from yesterday, and after my first stint in Free Practice 3, it was clear that we had made progress. The car seemed better balanced, especially in medium-speed corners, and this improved again during the session. By the time we did our performance run, we had found settings that worked well, closer to what we wanted to see, so we went into qualifying feeling positive.
Between the third free practice session and qualifying, the track temperature increased, and when I went out for my first run in Q1, the car balance was no longer as good. It had changed compared to this morning, and I felt like I couldn’t push. We opted for two runs on medium tires, and my fastest lap in the first run was good. We added a bit of front wing for the second run, and I set my best lap in the last lap of my second run, but there was clearly more to be gained if we had the same balance as in the third free practice. Despite that, the main objective for the team was to finish ahead of our closest rivals, and we clearly did that today.
