Gearbox problem for Buemi
It was a very tyical day at Spa-Francorchamps in terms of the weather, so the Scuderia Toro Rosso was able to assess the car in every possible condition. In the morning, Buemi suffered a gearbox issue, but for the rest it was quite a good day for the Faenza-based team.
Jaime Alguersuari (STR5-03): “It was actually good fun driving today, as we experienced every track condition possible. From what we saw today, I will be hoping for a wet race on Sunday, as I think we are more competitive in these conditions, giving us a better chance to get into the points. Because of the rain today, there is a question mark over tyre performance in the dry on high fuel loads, but that is the same for everyone. The car felt quite good in both the dry and the wet, but we still need more data on the tyre front. Because of the different conditions with teams running various types of tyre at different times, it is very difficult to understand the order amongst us, so I think we can expect another very interesting day tomorrow.”
First Practice Session - Best lap 2.04.250, pos. 16th, 16 laps
Second Practice Session - Best lap 1.50.682, pos. 14th, 25 laps
Sebastien Buemi (STR5-02): “We had an issue on the gearbox in the morning, but in reality we did not lose much running time because it was raining so hard at that time. At least it meant I saved the wear on my rain tyres. In the second session, when it dried up, it was difficult to get a true picture relating to our performance, as everyone was trying something different. The important thing now is to do a good job of analyzing all our data, in terms of car set-up and the difference between the two slick compounds and see what we can do for tomorrow. In the dry, I was quite happy on the hard compound, but with the option, I did not get the tyres to work properly, so I did not get the most out of them and we will have to look at that in tomorrow morning’s session.”
First Practice Session - Best lap 2.05.680, pos. 18th, 6 laps
Second Practice Session - Best lap 1.51.523, pos. 17th, 25 laps
Laurent Mekies (Chief Engineer): “A typical day at Spa in terms of the weather. In the morning we had a gearbox issue with Sebastien’s car, but luckily, as conditions were very bad, we did not lose so much track time. In the morning, we only used the extreme rain tyres and then in the afternoon, we got the chance to run the intermediates and both types of dry tyre, so altogether it was quite a good day in terms of collecting a useful amount of data. The forecast for the rest of the weekend is predicting more mixed conditions and wet weather would definitely suit us best for the race, so that is what we are hoping for.”
