Toro Rosso pleased with Friday progress
The first two practices of the GP weekend went quite well for the Scuderia Toro Rosso, as Jaime Alguersuari has never driven the Silverstone track in an F1 car before, which added learning the circuit to the overall programme. This was reflected on the times as his teammate Sebastien Buemi bested him by almost a second throughout the day.
Sebastien Buemi (STR5-02)
“I think today was quite good for us, at least better than it seems from looking at our times. In general I was happy with the car and we saw some useful improvements from the changes we made to the set-up and another positive factor is that we managed a good long stint on the Option tyre. I am pretty confident for the rest of the weekend, but we must continue to work hard. I enjoyed the new circuit layout, as the new section is attractive, although there is a big bump entering Turn 11. As usual, after FP2, we must now make a good job of drawing the right conclusions from the data we have gathered.”
First Practice Session - Best lap 1.34.132, pos. 11th, 21 laps
Second Practice Session - Best lap 1.33.836, pos. 16th, 36 laps
Jaime Alguersuari (STR5-03):
“Another new circuit in an F1 car for me, even if part of it is new to everyone. So, much of today consisted of learning the track and finding out how to set up the car. On the tyre front, we did a useful comparison between the two compounds, so it was an information gathering day and I expect a lot more from tomorrow. Before then, I need to look at the data to see where I am losing out to my team-mate. This year, every time we have been at a circuit that I had not driven before in an F1 car, I improved a lot from Friday to Saturday so I expect this will again be the case this weekend. In general, I enjoyed the circuit, apart from the big bump at Turn 11.”
First Practice Session - Best lap 1.35.318, pos. 18th, 27 laps
Second Practice Session - Best lap 1.34.643, pos. 18th, 36 laps
Laurent Mekies (Chief Engineer): “Our main objective today was to complete as many laps as possible to learn the new track layout, which is presenting everyone with an interesting and enjoyable challenge in terms of car set-up. We had a trouble free day and tried various set-ups on both cars, so now we have to look at the data from both cars and come up with the best solution in order to make the most of tomorrow. Looking at the lap times, it is clear that the field is more spaced out than in Valencia which highlights the fact this is a more demanding circuit that shows up the strengths and weaknesses of the various team packages.”
Source: Scuderia Toro Rosso
