Report – Friday – Vettel Saves the Day at Toro Rosso

The Scuderia Toro Rosso narrowly escaped what was otherwise a bad day for the Italian team. Sébastien Bourdais, who scored his first two points at the recent Australian Grand Prix, encountered mechanical troubles during this first day of testing. Gearbox, engine failure, it was simply not the Frenchman’s day.

On the other hand, Vettel, his teammate, delivered a very strong performance in the afternoon by reaching the top 5 of the session, even though he is nearly one and a half seconds behind the best time holder, Hamilton. He thus gave his team renewed hope as the qualifiers approached.

Sebastian Vettel – 15th and 5th:

« Lap times do not always reflect the situation. I think we can be satisfied with this afternoon’s testing as we completed many laps. Unfortunately, this morning, we had a brake issue, but in the end, it didn’t cost us too much time and we were able to continue our afternoon program. »

« We spent most of our time making adjustments to the car to find the right balance. Tire choice is also one of the points studied. It was a good day and we have a lot of data to study for tomorrow. »

Sébastien Bourdais – 18th and 21st:

This track is very enjoyable and very fast; it’s a very good track. But there wasn’t much grip, so it was difficult to achieve full competitiveness in this situation. It’s about moving forward step by step, waiting for the track to improve.

« Unfortunately, this afternoon, we had a gearbox problem right from the start after fixing it, there was an engine failure. The car didn’t seem too bad this morning and we had planned to evaluate the different tires this afternoon, but it was impossible. »