Difficult Friday for STR drivers at India

Daniel Ricciardo (STR8-01)
First Practice Session
Best lap: 1:28.336, pos. 13th, 18 laps
Second Practice Session
Best lap: 1:27.304, pos. 11th, 17 laps
“This morning went okay, even if we were lacking a bit of speed, but we did make progress over the 90 minutes. This enabled us to get closer to the top ten in the afternoon, but there is still a bit of work to do. The tyres come under a lot strain here and everyone seemed to be suffering a bit with graining. Unfortunately, my second session ended a little bit early, as I slid wide at the chicane and as I went over the kerb, it damaged the car and I had to stop. It means I was unable to do a long run test, but I hope we can find time for one tomorrow morning. I still feel the potential is there for me to be in Q3 tomorrow.”

Jean-Eric Vergne (STR8-04)
First Practice Session
Best lap: 1:28.035, pos. 11th, 25 laps
Second Practice Session
Best lap: 1:28.431, pos. 18th, 30 laps
“This was a mixed Friday, quite good in the morning, worse in the afternoon. In the first session, I had the right feeling from the car and my times were good. But this afternoon, I lost one second a lap, for reasons that we really don’t understand just yet, so getting to the bottom of this situation is our first priority this evening. The tyre situation looks interesting, as I could see plenty of other cars showing signs of tyre graining. I had it too, so this definitely means we can expect a different and maybe more exciting sort of race than we saw last year here.”

Laurent Mekies (Head of Vehicle Performance): “A more difficult Friday than usual. The cars went well in FP1 and we were reasonably happy with what we achieved, as we kept improving the car, at least in Daniel’s case. That’s why he has ended the day at the top of the midfield, which is quite a good starting point. But after his “off” on his fast lap in FP2, he was unable to do a long run, as we suspected there was some damage to the car and chose to end his day there. Up until that point, in terms of pure pace, it was looking reasonable. With Jev, there are a few question marks, as we looked in good shape this morning, before losing balance and pace in FP2. Our priority is to establish why, so that we can have both our cars running at the front of the midfield. This circuit is very demanding on tyres and the tyre choice is an aggressive one. But last year, everyone said the one stop race we had here was boring, so this year’s choice is part of the show and I’m sure it will produce an interesting race on Sunday. In any case, the tyres are the same for everybody.”

Scuderia Toro Rosso

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