Friday: Caterham in a good position for the rest of the weekend
Caterham can approach the rest of the Korean weekend with confidence. Despite a few minor issues, the CT01 is showing a satisfactory pace and the team should be able to achieve a good result tomorrow and Sunday.
Heikki Kovalainen – 19th and 19th:
« Free practice 1 was good for me. The car was well balanced from the start and improved throughout the session. The track was very slippery at first, but the grip level quickly improved and the small changes we made for each stint worked well.
In FP2 I went off track on my first stint which loosened some bolts in the cockpit meaning we had to find a temporary solution to fix the seat in order to continue the program. Until that point, the balance didn’t seem as good as in the morning but once we put on the super-softs, the balance was back. We also improved the braking, so overall it’s a good day.
Giedo van der Garde – 22nd [Free Practice 1]:
« A new useful session for me, and the more time I spend in the car, the more confident I feel. This morning, we were on a program similar to Heikki’s, and apart from some graining issues on the front tires at the beginning of the session, I think we made good progress on a new circuit for me. After the first stint, we made some mechanical and aerodynamic changes, and the car immediately behaved better and gave me more confidence to push, but I’m still learning and want to do what the team asks of me. Next up will be Free Practice 1 in India, and I’m already looking forward to making progress there. »
Vitaly Petrov – 22nd [Free Practice 2]:
« Free practice 2 did not start as we would have liked since I quickly felt a puncture on the right rear. We stopped the stint, and when I returned to the pits, we changed the program to avoid using another set of super-softs. On my first stint on the super-softs, the balance wasn’t very good, and we made some mechanical changes that clearly improved the performance on the long stints. The level of degradation on the super-softs is quite high, and without the need to change our program, my lap times could have been better. Despite everything, Heikki and Giedo completed many laps on the softs, and we have a lot of data to analyze, enough to put us in a good position for tomorrow. »
