Australian GP: Sauber Friday report

Weather: Mid-day sunny and dry, later rain, 26-26C air, 21-37C track Because of mixed weather conditions with some rain in the second free practice session for the Australian Grand Prix it is difficult to estimate everybody's performance. However, ...

Weather: Mid-day sunny and dry, later rain, 26-26C air, 21-37C track

Because of mixed weather conditions with some rain in the second free practice session for the Australian Grand Prix it is difficult to estimate everybody's performance. However, Pedro de la Rosa and Kamui Kobayashi had a trouble free second session and were 12th and 13th.

The first 90-minutes session at lunchtime hadn't been as pleasant. After only a few laps Kobayashi had ripped off half of the front wing when hitting a cone and needed to come in for repairs. On his next run the new front wing came off. Kobayashi only did five laps. Ten minutes before the end of the session De la Rosa also stopped on the track due to a clutch problem.

Pedro de la Rosa:
C29.03 / Ferrari 056
1st Practice: 15th / 1:29.465 min (13 laps) / 2nd Practice: 12th / 1:27.108 min (25 laps)

"Generally the car feels better than in Bahrain, which is good news. Of course more running would have helped to improve the set-up, but I can't complain as I had some dry running."

Kamui Kobayashi:
C29.02 / Ferrari 056
1st Practice: 18th / 1:31.588 min (5 laps) / 2nd Practice: 13th / 1:27,455 min (23 laps)

"In the first session I came too close to that cone and hit it, and then I could not do any more running after I lost the new front wing. Of course I would have liked to do more laps, but the rain in the second session did not help. However, I still got a good feeling for the track. We will now concentrate and work on improving the car, the main problem is an overall lack of grip."

Willy Rampf, Technical Director:
"In the first practice we lost time on Kamui's car due to a broken front wing mounting. This resulted from damage earlier to the wing. Pedro was hindered by a clutch control problem in the first free practice and also lost some time. In FP1 we tested a new rear wing. However, there was not enough time to collect sufficient data, therefore we decided to go back to the previous version and concentrate on working on the set-up of the car. Due to the mixed weather conditions in the second session we were not able to complete our programme. However, I think we found a baseline for tomorrow."