Friday: The HRT drivers would have liked to do more laps
Pedro de la Rosa completed 30 laps during the two practice sessions today and Narain Karthikeyan 28, but both would have liked to cover more, especially to address the rear tire degradation issues and traction problems they encountered.
Pedro de la Rosa – 23rd and 21st:
« It’s an incredible circuit and really enjoyable to drive. We found a good base for our settings from the start, but it would have been better to do more laps and long stint simulations to improve them and have a better understanding of the tires. We have a lot of work to do on the rear because the traction is still poor. Today’s times may not be representative because we didn’t work with a full fuel load, but on the positive side, the car worked very well with the medium tires, and I’m confident we can improve with the hard ones for tomorrow. »
Narain Karthikeyan – 24th and 24th:
« The circuit is exactly how I remembered it. It is very pleasant, fluid, and there are many beautiful turns, which makes it a lot of fun to drive here. It has been a difficult day because we didn’t cover many laps and we couldn’t get the most out of the medium tires as I had a lot of traffic on my fast laps at the end of the session. I must say that the balance of the car was very good from the start and we slightly improved it over the sessions. We still have room for improvement, however. The degradation of the rear tires is still too significant, and we need to improve traction, so that’s what we will focus on as a priority for tomorrow. »