Red Bull Ring: Sauber ends Friday practice as planned

During the first day of practice for the Austrian Grand Prix in Spielberg, the Sauber F1 Team was able to run through the planned programme, even if Adrian Sutil’s C33 had a technical issue with a broken hose in the morning which needed to be changed. However, the afternoon session went according to the plan for Esteban Gutiérrez and Adrian.

Esteban Gutiérrez (FP1: 14th, 1:12.984 min, 29 laps / FP2: 14th, 1:11.491 min, 42 laps): “We had a good day. We used the time on track efficiently as we managed to get through our programme. From that point of view the sessions went well. Although, we still need to work more on the consistency of our lap times. The driveability of the car is also a factor, which is quite important during the long runs. This is our priority at the moment.”

Adrian Sutil (FP1: 19th, 1:14.691 min, 9 laps / FP2: 16th, 1:11.806 min 42 laps): “I was able to go through the second free practice without any incidents. In the morning I lost quite a lot of time on track due to a technical problem. However, I am satisfied with our programme today. As the track is very slippery, the car is unstable and, therefore, difficult to drive. With the expected higher temperatures tomorrow, I should have a better feeling as the grip level on track will be higher.”

Giampaolo Dall’Ara, Head of Track Engineering: “Technically the biggest issue this morning was a broken hose on Adrians‘ car, which needed to be changed and cost us quite some time. The afternoon went pretty much according to plan. We had to adapt Adrian’s programme a little bit in order to give him a bit of time for set-up work, due to the time he lost this morning. However, overall workwise we accomplished everything . One of the aspects we have to look into is the fact that the ambient temperatures were colder today than we expect them to be for the next two days. Hence, we will need to make some adaptadations.”

Sauber F1 Team