Straightforward Friday for Renault
The ING Renault F1 Team completed a very busy day of practice at the Hungaroring, on the outskirts of Budapest, today in preparation for this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix. The team especially concentrated on the tyres.
Fernando Alonso, R2904
Free practice 1: 28 laps, 1:23.001, P9
Run 1: New hard tyres
Run 2: Front ride height and front anti-roll bar change
Run 3: Adjustment to front wing
Free Practice 2: 37 laps, 1:22.793, P12
Run 1: New hard tyres
Run 2: Front and rear ride height change
Run 3: Front and rear ride height change
Run 4: New soft tyres
Run 5: New soft tyres with front wing adjustment
Fernando: “It was a fairly normal day of practice, although it wasn’t easy to cope with the constantly evolving track. The morning was all about getting used to the car again and in the afternoon we concentrated on understanding the two different tyres, which gave us some useful information for the race. We managed to complete our programme and I think we can be happy with the job we have done today. For tomorrow morning we need to get ready for qualifying as grid position will be very important for the race.”
Nelson Piquet, R2903
Free practice 1: 22 laps, 1:23.678, P17
Run 1: New hard tyres
Run 2: Front ride height and front anti-roll bar change
Run 3: Weight distribution change
Free Practice 2: 36 laps, 1:22.927, P15
Run 1: New soft tyres
Run 2: New hard tyres
Run 3: Scrubbed soft tyres
Run 4: Front and rear ride height change
Run 5: New soft tyres
Nelson: “It wasn’t an easy day because I had to learn about the new parts that I have on my car this weekend, as well as working on the set-up. As Fernando already had these updates in Germany, I’ve been able to get some set-up feedback from his data. Generally the Hungaroring is a circuit where it’s quite difficult to find the right set-up, especially as the track is so dirty and bumpy. So far we have lots of data that we will look over this evening to prepare for tomorrow. It’s difficult to say if it’s possible to qualify in the top ten, but we’re doing everything we can to have a quick car for tomorrow.”
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering: “It was quite a straightforward day of practice for us. As usual, we concentrated on understanding the tyres, particularly as we have the super-soft compound here, which is generally more difficult to use than the other compounds. However, today it was extremely satisfactory, for both short and long runs, so we feel confident for the remainder of the weekend.”
