Friday: Mercedes Maintains Its New Good Habits
After dominating the first free practice, only Sebastian Vettel was able to get ahead of Nico Rosberg. As in the recent Grand Prix races, the Silver Arrows seem very fast over a single lap, while their long stints are improving more and more.
Nico Rosberg – 2nd and 2nd
« It’s a great track, and it’s really fun to drive here with my current Silver Arrow. It was quite an interesting day for us since we had to adapt to the new tires. They are different and require a different setup, so it was a good opportunity to learn something today. We want to understand them faster and better than the other teams. Overall, it seems we are still fast on a lap, and the long runs are not bad. It’s hard to say where we stand because you never know the exact fuel level of others. Then, it will be hotter on Sunday, and that could still change everything. »
Lewis Hamilton – 1st and 8th
« It was a reasonable test day for us. The morning went very well and the car felt good, but after we made several changes that didn’t work for us this afternoon. The car seemed to have a worse balance during free practice 2, so we’ll look into that tonight, and probably revert some of those changes tomorrow. I’m sure we’ll be back in shape during free practice 3. »
