Toro Rosso well prepared if weekend stays wet
The changing conditions at Silverstone allowed Toro Rosso to complete a good amount of laps on the wet weather tyres. However, these conditions trouble the rest of the weekend if, as expected, weather would turnaround and the track would stay dry.
Sebastien Buemi, STR6-04:
First Practice Session: Best lap 1.48.778, pos. 12th, 18 laps
Second Practice Session: Best lap 1.52.189, pos. 10th, 21 laps
“It’s good to be back at Silverstone, which is one of the great circuits, even if the weather is predictably unpredictable! However, we got the maximum out of the session doing a lot of laps in the wet, even going out when there was a risk of aquaplaning. I think it was the right thing to do, because if there should be any more rain on Sunday, we are well prepared. Both the extreme and intermediate tyres worked well and our performance level is quite encouraging at the moment, but let’s wait and see what happens tomorrow when it should be dry. The team did a very good job and I can face the rest of the weekend with optimism. We have a new pit lane here and the entry is a bit bumpy as it’s a new bit of track, so you have to be careful, but in general, the new facilities seem very nice.”
Jaime Alguersuari, STR6-01:
First Practice Session: Best lap 1.48.678, pos. 10th, 22 laps
Second Practice Session: Best lap 1.54.274, pos. 17th, 16 laps
“I am very pleased with the way today’s sessions went as we were very quick in the wet conditions, when everyone was out on track. I am pleased with the way we worked on the car, evaluating different set-ups for the wet. From what we have seen today, I would like a wet race on Sunday, as I had a very good feeling from the car. I did a lot of laps this morning on the intermediates and generally we seemed competitive on both types of tyre. As for the diffuser ban, I cannot honestly say I felt much difference in today’s conditions.”
Laurent Mekies, Chief Engineer:
“Our programme went well, completing a lot of laps with both cars, facing some very different track conditions over the three hour period. All drivers were allocated one extra set of Pirelli intermediate tyres for today and we made good use of them, as well as running on the extremes. It meant we were able to do as many laps as we needed to without worrying about tyre useage. We evaluated various different car set-ups to match the changing conditions and both Sebastien and Jaime did well to avoid making any mistakes in these challenging conditions. We are therefore reasonably well prepared for wet conditions, even if the rest of the weekend is not supposed to be so wet and tomorrow we will live in a different world.”
