HRT Belgian GP - Spa Friday practice report

HRT press release

Vitantonio Liuzzi and Daniel Ricciardo finished in 18th and 24th place respectively after today’s first free practice sessions for the 2011 Belgian Grand Prix. In the second free practice Vitantonio Liuzzi clocked 1.57.450 for 19 laps in the semi-wet session. Daniel Ricciardo covered 21 laps with a time of 1.57.612.

Vitantonio Liuzzi, HRT F1 Team

Photo by: xpb.cc

Vitantonio Liuzzi:

“It is good to be back although we haven’t had the sessions we were hoping for. Today was a typical day at Spa with unpredictable weather and it is a shame that we couldn’t test as much as we wanted. We understood a few things about the car under wet conditions but, of course, we would have liked to have a lot more information on the dry. We were only able to do five laps in these conditions but I am sure we could have gone quicker with a few more. We have some ideas about which direction to go and we appear to be quite strong in wet conditions. We have to be ready for any conditions but tomorrow and Sunday could be the same”.

Daniel Ricciardo HRT F1 Team, HRT

Photo by: xpb.cc

Daniel Ricciardo:

“The first day here at Spa had the typical weather, what it usually produces. We were expecting it to be a bit wet but it would have been nice if it was either wet or dry, not in between. At least we were able to complete runs in the afternoon with soft, intermediate and extreme wet tyres, which was quite positive although they were very short runs. When we wanted to do a change to the set-up the weather always changed too, so that was a bit frustrating. But it wasn’t a bad first day and we’ll see how it goes tomorrow”.

I am satisfied with what we have achieved here so far. We learned a bit in all conditions

Colin Kolles

Colin Kolles, Team Principal:

“It’s Friday practice as usual, and with this rain, we could not make as good progress as we wanted. The rain made us change and we adapted our working program from lap to lap. This afternoon we managed getting some more running time for the drivers to optimize our preparation for qualifying. The weather is often hard to predict here, but it looks like we seem to be on the wet side for qualifying. I am satisfied with what we have achieved here so far. We learned a bit in all conditions”.

10.00-11.30 FORMULA 1 PRACTICE SESSION 1
Vitantonio Liuzzi - F111-002 - #23 - 18th - (10 laps) 2:12.389
Daniel Ricciardo - F111-003 - #22 - 24th - (11 laps) 2:14.933

14.00-15.30 FORMULA 1 PRACTICE SESSION 2
Vitantonio Liuzzi - F111-002 #23 22nd - (19 laps) 1:57.450
Daniel Ricciardo - F111-003 #22 23rd - (24 laps) 1:57.612