British Grand Prix 2009, Friday

The ING Renault F1 Team completed a busy day of practice at Silverstone today in preparation for this weekend’s British Grand Prix.

Nelson Piquet, R2901
Free practice 1: 30 laps, 1:21.525 on lap 19, P18
Run 1: 9 laps, new hard tyres
Run 2: 10 laps, same set of hard tyres, change to front and rear anti-roll bars
Run 3: 10 laps, same set of hard tyres, change to front wing

Free Practice 2: 37 laps, 1:20.608 on lap 36, P10
Run 1: 9 laps, new hard tyres
Run 2: 7 laps, same set of hard tyres, change to rear suspension
Run 3: 7 laps, same set of hard tyres, change to front wing
Run 4: 8 laps, new soft tyres
Run 5: 6 laps, new soft tyres, change to front wing

Nelson: “It was a busy day and we managed to get a lot done, including the usual set-up work and tyre evaluation. As always at Silverstone it was quite windy, but it didn’t cause too many problems and we managed to improve the car quite a bit, especially in the afternoon. We also tried out the new developments that we have this weekend, including the new front wing. We now have a lot of information to go through to try and make the most of the final practice session tomorrow morning.”

Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering
“I’m quite happy with the competitiveness of the car here. We expected the quick corners to suit us and the sector times seem to indicate that we are quite competitive in the faster parts, hence our overall lap times look to be slightly ahead of our normal position. Having said that, we know it will be an extremely close qualifying session and so I’d still like to find a little bit more speed from the car.”