Work to do on qualifying pace for Sauber
Both sessions on Thursday went without any technical problems. At the very end of the first 90-minutes free practice Kamui Kobayashi made contact with a barrier in the swimming pool chicane. The team repaired the C29 for session two. Pedro de la Rosa and Kobayashi were 16th and 17th in the second session, which finished just before a rain shower.
Pedro de la Rosa: C29.03 / Ferrari 056 1st Practice: 17th / 1:18.434 (38 laps) 2nd Practice: 16th / 1:16.599 min (36 laps) “We covered all the mileage we wanted to, and made a lot of changes between the two sessions. We are heading in the right direction and have more ideas for Saturday. We can still make the car quicker, but we lose too much in the slow corners. Personally I started the first session quite carefully. The last time I was here was in 2002, so for me it was like learning a new track and I needed to get to know it again. For the second session I felt a lot more confident.”
Kamui Kobayashi: C29.01 / Ferrari 056 1st Practice: 18th / 1:18.547 min (32 laps) 2nd Practice: 17th / 1:16.818 min (46 laps) “It is really difficult to drive here and I had a few moments. I think we had a reasonable set up from the beginning, but still it was difficult to find grip in the slow corners, which is our main problem. We will work and try to improve the set up.”
James Key, Technical Director: “Like any first day at Monaco, the track was obviously slippery at the beginning and tricky, so we just allowed the drivers to do their laps and get a feel for the car and the tyres. We did some set-up work in the morning and suffered a little bit from the grip level, but everyone had the same problem in that respect. In the afternoon we consolidated on what we found in the morning. We went through another programme on the prime tyres and then tried the option tyres, which worked pretty well by the time we ran them, because the track was in better condition. We then went on to some race simulation work. The race pace looked quite reasonable, however, there is work to do on our qualifying pace. That’s what we will look at in detail for Saturday.”
