Williams ready
Alex Wurz set the fastest lap in Friday practice in Malaysia earlier today. The Austrian test driver lapped the 5.543km Sepang circuit in 1:34.946s completing a total of 49 laps over the two free practice sessions. Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg only completed five and six laps respectively late in the second session, relying on Wurz to collect the data for the qualifying session tomorrow and the race on Sunday.
Alex Wurz “We had two very interesting sessions and I choose the word interesting because they were not straightforward. We will have to analyse our data as well as the information from Bridgestone. But it will not be straightforward for the competition on tyre choice either and as a consequence, not straightforward on chassis balance. For us, at the end of the day, I think my long runs looked good and I hope I have prepared a good car for the team for Saturday and Sunday.”
Mark Webber “I only did three fast laps today, but we have collected a plenty of data with Alex’s car. His programme went well which is good for the team. Now we’ll go through the data this afternoon and we’ll take it from there. The car isn’t quite perfect, but addressing this is our job for now.”
Nico Rosberg “Even though I have never driven on this circuit before, it was easier to learn this track than it was in Bahrain. It’s my second race weekend in Formula One, but already I feel adapting to the tracks is easier.
The car felt quite good and it has been a positive day in general. We just need to make some changes in the car’s balance for tomorrow.”
Sam Michael, Technical Director “Today was very productive in terms of set-up on Alex’s car and generating data to help with the selection of the right tyre compound for the race. All of the cooling in respect of the engine, gearbox and brakes looks fine and we are encouraged by the lap times. Mark completed a short run and checked the balance was okay and Nico’s car, we scheduled to do two runs, but we had a problem with a fuel pipe which restricted him to one run. Now we will prepare the car for tomorrow’s qualifying when we expect to be competing as a front runner.”
Bernard Ferguson, Cosworth “Most of today’s running was focused on the T-car with Alex Wurz. Engine temperatures are always a concern at this circuit, so it was good to get some long runs in to get an idea .of stabilised values. There were no major engine problems”
