Practice report

Sahara Force India had tire problems on Friday practice for the Spanish GP

Jakob Andreasen, Chief Race Engineer: "We are awaiting further information from Pirelli about what happened.”

Paul Di Resta (FP1: 1:26.755, P10, 16 laps / FP2: 1:24.104, P10, 25 laps): “It was difficult to learn a massive amount today with the wet conditions this morning and our limited running.

Paul di Resta, Sahara Force India

Photo by: XPB Images

We had some new parts and both cars were slightly different to allow us to evaluate as much as possible.

We will decide tonight the best overall package to carry forward. The baseline of the car is very similar to how it was in February during testing so we seem to be in the right operating window.

My day was cut short with the tyre issue, but at this stage we’re waiting for Pirelli to analyse exactly what happened.”

Adrian Sutil (FP1: 1:26.212, P5, 24 laps / FP2: 1:23.840, P8, 37 laps): “An interesting day with a big variation in weather conditions. It was useful to have the wet running this morning because it’s an area where we need to be more competitive. The changes we made improved things with each run.

The afternoon tyre work was normal, but we also ran on the prototype tyre, which was very hard and felt very different to drive. The normal hard and medium compounds are quite similar, but the difference between the two is bigger than I expected here. The long runs went well and the car felt pretty well balanced on the medium tyre.”

Jakob Andreasen, Chief Race Engineer: “Not the easiest day with a mix of weather conditions and some lost track time for Paul. The wet weather this morning made it difficult to get a complete understanding of our new developments – both aero and mechanical – and we saw once again that our wet weather performance is an area where we need to improve.

In the dry afternoon session our performance level was around about where we expected it to be and both drivers seem happy with their general car balance.

Most of the teams around us have shown strong pace over long runs so it’s clear that we need to try and extract some more performance from our package and make the most of tomorrow morning.

In terms of the tyre problem for Paul, it occurred during his long run on the medium tyres. We are awaiting further information from Pirelli about what happened.”

Sahara Force India