Caterham happy with overnight progress
Heikki Kovalainen and Vitaly Petrov were both happy with their qualifying performances. The team made progress overnight with the car set-ups for both drivers, allowing the cars to qualify in 19th and 20th position for the Hungarian GP.
Heikki Kovalainen, car 20, chassis CT01-#3:
“It’s been a positive day today. In FP3 the car immediately felt better balanced and there was more grip so that was a good step from yesterday.
“In qualifying I think I got as much out of the car as I could today. I’m very happy with that last lap, as we made no mistakes and I’m pleased with the final balance of the car. We’ll look ahead now to tomorrow’s race and keep pushing as always. It could get interesting if there are showers, but overall I feel we’re making the most of what we’ve got and we just need to work on improving the performance of the car.”
Vitaly Petrov, car 21, chassis CT01-#2:
“The day started well with the changes we made overnight improving the overall handling of the car. In qualifying I think we made exactly the right calls on strategy and with the decision to do two runs on the option tyres. I had a good first run but on my second run we went for one flying lap to make the most of the track conditions and unfortunately I ended up losing time in turn eleven which affected my final laptime.
“Despite that, I’m very happy with the set up of the car, and I feel we have progressed well this weekend. Tomorrow is another day and I think we can have a good race, as we have had all season.”
Mark Smith, Technical Director:
“The final practice session was positive for us. Both drivers reported that the car balance felt much better today, and that the work we did last night, here and back at the factory, had improved the overall feel.
“In qualifying we ran both drivers on the option tyres on both runs and maximised the knowledge gained from the practice sessions. Our result was what we expected it would be, so now tomorrow’s focus is on taking every opportunity presented and bringing both cars home with a positive result.”
Riad Asmat, CEO:
“Overall it has been a positive day. Both drivers performed as well as could be expected with the performance levels that we have at the moment. It’s good to see we are a little bit closer to the teams ahead, but we know we still have a lot more work to do to get to where we want to be.
“We have performed well on Sundays throughout the season, and there is no reason why we cannot sign off for the August break with a positive result from both sides of the garage.”
Weather
FP1: Dry, sunny, air temp 28˚C , track temp 37˚C – 39˚C
Quali: Dry, mostly sunny, air temp 30˚C, track temp 43˚C
