Renault fastest in FP1 but still aiming to improve
With Robert Kubica setting the fastest time in the first practice session, the Renault squad was fighting among the top teams for top positions, although as always fuel levels are not completely know. Meanwhile, Vitaly Petrov also did a great job considering it was his first time on the Albert Park circuit.
Robert Kubica: “It was a good Friday. This morning everything went well with just some small balance issues, so we did some set-up wok to get used to the track, which is very different to Bahrain and the tracks where we tested over the winter. The second session was damp so we did some runs on intermediates to get a feeling for the wet conditions. Overnight we will work to try and improve the balance so that we get the maximum from the car tomorrow."
R30-03
Free Practice 1: P1, 22 laps, 1:26.927
Free Practice 2: P11, 28 laps, 1:27.108
Vitaly Petrov:“This morning the car felt pretty good and better than it did in Bahrain. The first session was a learning experience for me as I got to know the track and did some set-up work. We knew it was going to be wet in the second session so we went out as early as we could on the dry tyres before the rain got too heavy. When the track was damp we did some runs to analyse a few things and to understand the balance of the car on different fuel loads. It could rain on Sunday so it was good experience to run in these conditions.”
R30-02
Free Practice 1: P9, 25 laps, 1:28.114
Free Practice 2: P5, 26 laps, 1:26.732.
Technical Debrief with Alan Permane, Chief Race Engineer:
Track conditions and evolution: Albert Park is a track that is not used very often so the track started off very dirty and there was a quick evolution during the first session with the lap times coming down rapidly. The second session was affected by rain which slowed the evolution down.
Tyre performance: We’ve not been able to assess both compounds as much as we would have liked because of the rain. We ran on the prime in the morning and were happy with things, but we didn’t get to do a comparison in the afternoon. However, we did run one car on option and one on prime so we can look at that data. As yet we haven’t seen any clear trends.
Car balance: A little bit too much understeer still. The car is quite stable at the rear, but we need to work on the front end. Both drivers are reasonably happy and the new parts are performing as expected.
Ride on the bumps: It is bumpy here but the car is working well on the bumps so no complaints.
Drivers approach: For Vitaly it was a new circuit so he ran earlier in the first session with Robert running a bit later. The approach this afternoon was affected by the rain, but we ran as much as we could, especially with Vitaly. With Robert we ran into the dry on intermediate tyres and the car looked like it was working well.
General outlook: Robert was quickest this morning and although we don’t know fuel loads of the others, we had no major complaints with the car. I said at the beginning of the weekend that the goal was to get both cars into Q3 and I still think that’s a realistic target.
