German GP Benetton Friday notes

The Mild Seven Benetton Renualt Sport team had a competitive first day's practice on Friday at Hockenheim ahead of this weekend's German. Grand Prix Giancarlo Fisichella ended the two, one-hour sessions in 11th place with a best lap of 1m43.014s, while Jenson Button set a time of 1m43.496s to go 15th fastest.

Director of Engineering Pat Symonds said he was pleased with his team's effort, saying:

"We have had a very productive day. We ran a reasonably high fuel load all the way through the session because we are concentrating on race set-up, and we have completed some good tyre evaluations.

"The car looks quite competitive in low-downforce trim," he added, "and we look forward to a successful weekend."

Giancarlo Fisichella was happy with his day's running, saying afterwards:

"It was a quite good day and we are pleased with the way things have gone. We had a small gearbox problem during the first session, but the car has been well balanced from the start and I think we can be consistently quick here.

"We have made some improvements and found more grip and I am sure we will be competitive tomorrow," he added. "It is a nice feeling to have on a Friday and I am looking forward to qualifying."

His team-mate Jenson Button said that oversteer had hindered him, but was impressed with the tyre that Michelin have supplied for this race.

" The biggest problem we had this morning was oversteer, especially in the stadium section. I was quite a long way off Giancarlo, but we were running different kinds of tyre, which might have had something to do with it.

"By the end of the session most of the oversteer had been cured, but the bit that remained was still costing me some time. Overall I don't think we are too bad and Giancarlo's position hints at our true potential.

"Generally the car has worked well," he added, "and Michelin has come up with a very effective tyre."

The Mild Seven Benetton Renualt Sport team will next be on track on Saturday morning at 0900 local time (0800 BST) for the final practice session ahead of the afternoon's all-important qualifying hour.

-Benetton