Formula 1
Lotus Renault Friday Report
Chinese GP
Published: Apr 15, 2011, 2:54 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Can’t you hear me knocking – Chinese GP, Friday 15 April 2011
Nick and Vitaly began their Chinese quest today as free practice got underway at the Shanghai International Circuit
What we learned today:
•Tyres are performing relatively well, somewhere between the degradation of Melbourne and Malaysia.
•Track was dusty and dirty, particularly off line, but we expect it to clear up over the weekend.
Nick Heidfeld, Lotus Reanult GP
Photo by: Hazrin Yeob Men Shah
Nick Heidfeld, R31-01
Free practice 1: P5, 1:40.987, 5 laps
Free practice 2: P8, 1.38.805, 26 laps
Nick: “Today obviously wasn’t what we wanted, after I spun off in the first session and then again in the second which were both my fault. I hope it’s a good omen because in Malaysia we also didn’t have many laps on the Friday and then we had a good result. Given that I only had five laps in the first session, it was surprising how fast I was, we were both in the top 10. There’s still some more in the car but the gap is a bit bigger than we would have hoped for. As expected, we achieved quicker lap times when using the softs over the hards, and it was good that we managed to use both.”
Vitaly Petrov, R31-04
Free practice 1: P9, 1:41.231, 16 laps Free practice 2: P9, 1.38.859, 31 laps
Vitaly Petrov satisfied with today’s practice sessions
Photo by: xpb.cc
Vitaly: “We managed to run the whole way through both sessions, and then we were able to work on some directions for set-up so we’re quite happy with that. I think we need to be happy with today, of course not on the pace and the lap time as we can be quite a bit quicker. What is good is that we don’t have any mechanical problems, we can still continue to work and push hard. The option tyres were a big improvement, as usual, with much more grip.”
Alan Permane, Chief Engineer - Technical programme notes
Very unusual for Nick to have two incidents like that
Alan Permane
•A fairly typical Friday session for us today – running hard tyres in the first practice session, and both hards and softs in the second, some long running with both cars on high fuel.
•Very unusual for Nick to have two incidents like that, which put us back a bit but we’ll recover from that tomorrow.
•There was a little too much understeer on Vitaly’s car in the morning and oversteer on Nick’s car so we had some set-up work to do on both cars and improved things throughout the day.
Did you know?
The straight between turns 13 and 14 at the Shanghai International Circuit is 1.2 kilometres long.
Source: Lotus Renault GP
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Marussia Virgin Friday Report
Next article Red Bull Friday Report
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Vitaly Petrov
Top 10: Ranking the best GP2 non-champions
FIA F2
FIA F2
Top 10: Ranking the best GP2 non-champions
Petrov replaced as F1 steward after father's death
Formula 1
Formula 1
Portuguese GP
Petrov replaced as F1 steward after father's death
LGBTQ+ movement criticises appointment of Petrov as F1 steward
Formula 1
Formula 1
Portuguese GP
LGBTQ+ movement criticises appointment of Petrov as F1 steward
Latest news
FIA expects F1 races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi to continue as planned
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
3 h
FIA expects F1 races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi to continue as planned
TDS Racing doubles down on IMSA program with two-car LMP2 return
IMSA
IMSA IMSA 3 h
TDS Racing doubles down on IMSA program with two-car LMP2 return
Why Isack Hadjar doesn’t like F1 sprints anymore
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Singapore GP
3 h
Why Isack Hadjar doesn’t like F1 sprints anymore
Ross Chastain and Shane van Gisbergen to race for JR Motorsports again in 2027
NASCAR O'Reilly
NOAP NASCAR O'Reilly
Phoenix II
4 h
Ross Chastain and Shane van Gisbergen to race for JR Motorsports again in 2027
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe