De le Rosa's wet practice

Pedro de la Rosa finished Friday at Imola in 13th place, having set a best time of 1m40.809s, just a quarter of a second behind his team mate. It was a scrappy day for everybody as it was very wet in the morning and the track was still damp in the afternoon, although by the end a dry line had just about begun to appear. Adam Cooper spoke to the Spaniard.

Q: Was this is a bit of an inconclusive day?

"Absolutely. But what it really proved today is we have to look into the regulations. If the weather forecast is wet for the three days, seven sets of wet and intermediate tyres are not enough for the whole weekend. You end up first of all not getting any real reading on the tyres and the car, because you want to save the tyres, and secondly the spectators want to see the cars go by."

Q: So how many did you use today?

"Two sets of wets, but that's the maximum I wanted to try today. It was very slippery, but the car was very good when it was very wet, and the tyres were working very well earlier on. As the track dried out the tyres seemed to degrade quite quickly."

Q: Did you spin at all?

"I didn't spin, but maybe I had a couple of wheels on the grass!"

Q: Did you try dry tyres at the end?

"At the end I tried grooved tyres, and I tell you, it was close a couple of times. I didn't use intermediates because they are part of the wet allocation, and I wanted to save them. The grooved tyres were just one of the 'free' sets we have on Friday, and I just put them on to see if it worked or not, and it didn't work."

Q: Do you think that Michelin are at a disadvantage in wet conditions?

"I don't think for one lap we are behind. The big question mark is how it will be in the race if it's wet. But for one qualifying lap the tyres are very good."

-jaguar-