Friday: More work at Caterham

Alexander Rossi – 21st (Free Practice 1)

I am delighted with how this morning’s practice session went. We completed the program planned by the team and I quickly acclimated to F1. It wasn’t the first time I worked with the team, I already spent a day in Abu Dhabi during the young drivers test, but driving during a race weekend is totally different from those young driver tests. Today, it wasn’t about doing the fastest lap possible – I probably could have found 7 or 8 tenths – but the main focus today was to learn, contribute to the planned agenda, give clear and precise feedback to the engineers, and avoid making mistakes. That’s what we did, so I think it went well.

Heikki Kovalainen – 19th (Free Practice 2)

« A rather usual Friday for us. We made some setup changes at the start of Free Practice 2 to improve the balance, and I think we finished closer to what we wanted today. As has been the case since the start of the season, tire management will be crucial here, especially on Sunday, and from what we have seen regarding tire wear on both types of compounds, I think we will have to work to limit this wear, but I think if we succeed, we should be good tomorrow as well as on Sunday. »

Vitaly Petrov – 19th and 20th

I’m quite happy with my day because we’ve had a few complicated practice sessions recently. This morning, we consistently drove with the Hard tires and couldn’t find a good balance to really push, and then this afternoon, we managed to handle the understeer encountered with the Hards and the Softs, but we suddenly suffered from oversteer which we didn’t have before. It’s something that has affected a few teams and it’s not what we hoped for especially after the Bahrain race and the Mugello tests, but we will work on it and I am sure we will find a solution for free practice 3 and the qualifying.