Renault expects more difficult day tomorrow
The ING Renault F1 Team completed a busy day of practice in preparation for this weekend’s Turkish Grand Prix. Despite Fernando Alonso's high position on the timesheets, second in FP2, the team still has a lot of work to do for tomorrow's qualifying session.
Fernando Alonso, R2904
Free practice 1: 24 laps, 1:29.422 on lap 21, P8
Run 1: 7 laps, new hard tyres
Run 2: 7 laps, same set of hard tyres, change to anti-roll bar and front wing
Run 3: 8 laps, same set of hard tyres, change to front wing
Free Practice 2: 35 laps, 1:28.847 on lap 33, P2
Run 1: 5 laps, set of new hard tyres, change to gear box ratios
Run 2: 7 laps, same set of hard tyres, change to front wing
Run 3: 7 laps, same set of hard tyres, change to front wing
Run 4: 9 laps, new soft tyres
Run 5: 7 laps, new soft tyres, change to weight distribution
Fernando: “Driving at Istanbul Park on the first day is never easy as the track conditions are really poor and we always see the track evolve during the weekend. So we just tried to get some laps on the car and evaluate some parts, rather than focussing too much on set-up work as we didn’t want to get confused by the constantly changing track. So there is more to come and tomorrow morning we will start our proper set-up work. Even though our position looks good today, we know that tomorrow will be more difficult.”
Nelson Piquet, R2901
Free practice 1: 18 laps, 1:30.132 on lap 8, P14
Run 1: 9 laps, new hard tyres
Run 2: 6 laps, same set of hard tyres, change to rear springs
Run 3: 3 laps, same set of hard tyres
Free Practice 2: 38 laps, 1:29.401 on lap 16, P10
Run 1: 9 laps, new hard tyres
Run 2: 9 laps, same set of hard tyres, change to bodywork
Run 3: 10 laps, same set of hard tyres, change to rear suspension
Run 4: 10 laps, new soft tyres, change to rear suspension
Nelson: “The track conditions weren’t easy today as the track was very green and that made it difficult to learn much about the car. It improved a bit in the afternoon and that’s when we did most of our running which allowed us to start evaluating the tyres. It’s important to make the most of the final practice session tomorrow morning so that I can find a set-up that I am happy with and approach qualifying in reasonable shape.”
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering
“It was quite a challenging day. The circuit was very slippery - as we saw from the number of cars that went off the track. Also, the tyre behaviour was not as we expected and so despite Fernando’s high position on the timesheets, we still have a lot of work to do before tomorrow.”
