European GP Sauber Friday notes

Pedro Diniz and Mika Salo finished in 12th and 22nd places respectively after today’s first free practice sessions for the Grand Prix of Europe.

Pedro Diniz:
The RED BULL SAUBER PETRONAS C19 felt really good today with the new ae-rodynamic package that we evaluated during testing at Jerez last week, and I was quite pleased with the way things went. I used one set of tyres for most of the day, but my quick lap on a new set right at the end was frustrated by traffic. There’s good promise for tomorrow.

Mika Salo:
My situation is not as bad as 22nd place looks! Because of the rain this morning I didn’t do many laps and only used one set of tyres. We needed a little more time than we had available this afternoon to improve the balance, but we have a good direction to pursue tomorrow.

Peter Sauber (Team Principal):
Mika and Pedro followed different strategies today, so that we could focus on race set-up with one car, and low-fuel set-up with the other. Since the weather can be unpredictable here, it made sense to do this while we had the benefit of a dry track this afternoon.