Hungarian GP: Renault Friday practice notes

Fernando tenth and Jarno seventeenth but no cause for concern, while Pat Symonds explains the challenges of Fridays at the race. In spite of apparently unpromising positions at the end of the second free practice session at the Hungarian Grand ...

Fernando tenth and Jarno seventeenth but no cause for concern, while Pat Symonds explains the challenges of Fridays at the race.

In spite of apparently unpromising positions at the end of the second free practice session at the Hungarian Grand Prix, the Mild Seven Renault F1 Team remains confident for the rest of the weekend. During a day devoted to making the necessary tyre choice for Saturday and Sunday, the team completed this task without difficulty, and the rain which had been forecast, and could have disrupted the day, never arrived.

As usual, the job at hand will be to improve the handling of the R24: Fernando Alonso spent the day trying to cure an understeering car, while Jarno Trulli found that the two different tyre types had differing effects on the car balance. This fine-tuning of the cars' behaviour will be the team's major task this evening and during tomorrow's practice sessions.

Fernando Alonso:

"Track conditions today were very poor, and it was therefore difficult to learn very much for the rest of the weekend: I certainly think we will have a more interesting programme tomorrow. But having said that, on a Friday, your aim is always to be confident in the tyres you will choose, and after these two sessions, we are. The car was very under-steery today, particularly because the front tyres were graining, but that is normal here in Hungary on a Friday. We will be able to sort this out in the next sessions."

Jarno Trulli:

"The car balance changed a lot between the two types of tyre that I ran today, and so it was hard to make much progress on the set-up side. The car was quite inconsistent this morning and then the scenario changed completely for the afternoon, which explains my position in the times. Whatever our performance today may suggest, though, I think we can be competitive this weekend. Let's see what happens tomorrow."

Fernando Alonso
Chassis: R24-02
Practice session 1: 1:24.191, 13 laps, 11th
Practice session 2: 1:21.948, 22 laps, 10th

Jarno Trulli
Chassis: R24-04
Practice session 1: 1:24.124, 13 laps, 9th
Practice session 2: 1:22.788, 28 laps, 17th