Renault drivers reasonably happy with Monaco Thursday
Only four days after the Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona, the Renault F1 Team came in action today for the two free practice sessions, traditionally held on Thursday in Monaco. Kubica and Petrov are satisfied after the first day of work, but there are still some small issues to work on before Saturday.
Robert Kubica, R30-03
Free Practice 1: P3, 1:16.016, 28 laps
Free Practice 2: P6, 1:15.192, 38 laps
"I’m a big fan of street circuits so it was good fun driving around Monaco today, and things went pretty well for me during both sessions. We still have a couple of issues to work on with the balance of the car so it’s good that we have a free day tomorrow when we can look over the data. Hopefully we can improve the car a bit more before qualifying."
Vitaly Petrov, R30-02
Free Practice 1: P14, 1:17.718, 38 laps
Free Practice 2: P11, 1:15.746, 44 laps
"I enjoyed my first experience of Monaco in an F1 car. We spent the day working on the set-up and we changed a lot between the morning and the afternoon, which made the car much better. It’s a difficult track because you need to push hard all the time, the walls are very close and you have to concentrate hard to make sure you don’t make any mistakes. At the moment the balance is not too bad, but we still need to work on some things to improve the car before qualifying on Saturday."
Technical Debrief with Alan Permane, Chief Race Engineer:
Summary of the day: "It’s been a very positive day for us with both drivers completing good mileage. Robert was the quickest car on the medium compound (prime) tyre, although he didn’t have such a good run on the super-soft, but we’ve no major concerns. As for Vitaly, this was his first time at Monaco in an F1 car and he did a very good job during both sessions, and has ended the day close to Robert in terms of pace."
Track conditions: "Today’s conditions were typical Monaco: dirty, dusty and constantly evolving throughout the day. There was some light rain towards the end of the afternoon session, but the forecast for Saturday and Sunday suggests that more rain is unlikely."
General car balance: "The car is working very well, but it’s still not 100% and we’ve got to dial out some oversteer. Fortunately we have a free day tomorrow to look over the data to try and cure that.O"
