Sahara Force India completed a solid first day of work at the Spanish GP
Both Force India drivers finished in the top ten in the final practice session of the day.
Nico Hülkenberg VJM09-03
FP1: 1:26.938 (P13) 27 laps
FP2: 1:25.453 (P10) 35 laps
Nico: “It was a good Friday and we managed to get through most of our programme. We had a big upgrade package to test so all the data we managed to get will help us understand it and make the most of it. The first impressions are positive: I think it’s a good step forward in performance and I am quite pleased with how things went today. The job now is to analyse all the information from the sessions and see what else we can extract from the car. There are a few more tweaks we can make to get the balance right for the weekend, but it’s a good starting point.”
Sergio Perez VJM09-02
FP1: 1:27.064 (P14) 9 laps
FP2: 1:25.437 (P9) 32 laps
Sergio: “It was frustrating to lose some track time this morning, especially when you have some upgrades to test, but we managed to recover well in FP2. I’m not yet totally comfortable with the balance, but I believe we have made a big step forward compared to the car we had at the beginning of the season. Track position is very important in Barcelona so hopefully we can turn this performance into a good qualifying result tomorrow.”
Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal
“It was not the most straightforward morning with an oil leak costing Sergio quite a bit of time, but all in all it was a positive day. We were still able to cover a lot of ground with Nico and we completed good mileage with both cars in the afternoon, giving us plenty of data and information. We ran on all three tyre compounds and got a good understanding of the effects of our upgrade package. The preliminary indications appear to be very positive and we believe there is more to come from the car. There is still some work to do ahead of tomorrow, but I think we’re moving in a good direction.”
Sahara Force India
Share Or Save This Story
“Am I confident? Probably not” – The unprecedented challenge Singapore is throwing at F1 drivers
“They build the best engines” – Audi F1 drivers reveal biggest limitation and how to address it
Audi’s long road back to the top of grand prix racing
Otmar Szafnauer reveals failed Kimi Raikkonen bid involving "Angry Birds" founders
Esteban Ocon explains why he collided with Sergio Perez so often at Force India
Former Force India F1 boss Fernley dies aged 70
Super Formula Fuji: Ayumu Iwasa wins as Kakunoshin Ohta misses chance to seal title
MotoGP Indonesian GP: Marco Bezzecchi leads Aprilia 1-2-3-4; Jorge Martin reclaims points lead
Supercars Bathurst 1000: Brodie Kostecki and Todd Hazelwood win after Anton De Pasquale and Lee Holdsworth run out of fuel
FIA admits fairness was compromised in Singapore F1 sprint qualifying “mess”
What we learned from the 2026 F1 Singapore GP sprint and qualifying
How Honda plans a return to being an F1 powerhouse
Why Red Bull's 'crazy' power unit success matters so much for F1
No denying it now – the one reason why F1’s ‘horrible’ start in Malaysia could be a good thing
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.
Top Comments