British GP: Renault Friday practice report

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

Fernando Alonso, R2904
Free practice 1: 26 laps, 1:20.548 on lap 20, P5
Run 1: 10 laps, new hard tyres
Run 2: 10 laps, same set of hard tyres, change to rear suspension
Run 3: 5 laps, same set of hard tyres, change to tyre pressures

Free Practice 2: 36 laps, 1:20.237 on lap 34, P5
Run 1: 7 laps, set of new hard tyres
Run 2: 6 laps, same set of hard tyres, change to rear ride heights
Run 3: 8 laps, same set of hard tyres, change to front anti-roll bar
Run 4: 9 laps, new soft tyres
Run 5: 6 laps, new soft tyres, change to front wing

Fernando: "It was a normal Friday for us. We need to improve the car, but in the second practice session we were quite happy with the result. However, we know that we will have a very tough fight in qualifying tomorrow and that one or two tenths can make a big difference in terms of position. So we are still trying to find a little bit more from the car, some extra tenths to really maximise our potential, but we've definitely moved in the right direction today."

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."

-credit: renault