Spanish GP: Renault Friday practice report

Fernando Alonso, R2904
Free practice 1: 18 laps, 1:23.157 on lap 14, P17
Run 1: 7 laps, new hard tyres
Run 2: 7 laps, same set of hard tyres, change to front wing and rear ride height
Run 3: 3 laps, same set of hard tyres, change to front wing and rear ride height

Free Practice 2: 36 laps, 1:21.871 on lap 32, P3
Run 1: 7 laps, hard tyres, change to weight distribution
Run 2: 7 laps, new hard tyres
Run 3: 7 laps, same set of hard tyres, change to rear suspension
Run 4: 7 laps, new soft tyres
Run 5: 8 laps, new soft tyres, change to front suspension

Fernando: "The practice sessions were interesting because we had to evaluate some new parts that we have introduced to the car this weekend. In the first session we were struggling a little bit as we didn't have much grip, but for the afternoon we found something which took us in a good direction and improved the lap times. We obviously need to remain realistic about tomorrow as this is only Friday, but we are reasonably confident that we can have a good qualifying session. The target for Sunday remains the same: to score as many points as possible."

Nelson Piquet, R2901
Free practice 1: 24 laps, 1:22.753 on lap 21, P7
Run 1: 11 laps, hard tyres
Run 2: 10 laps, same set of hard tyres, change to weight distribution

Free Practice 2: 26 laps, 1:22.349 on lap 20, P8
Run 1: 8 laps, new hard tyres
Run 2: 6 laps, new soft tyres
Run 3: 4 laps, same set of soft tyres, change to rear suspension
Run 4: 5 laps, new soft tyres, change to front wing
To finish, three laps for practice starts

Nelson: "It was a fairly typical day of practice as we began evaluating the new developments on the car and assessing the tyres. I'm still not happy with the set-up of the car and so the priority tomorrow morning is to work on that so that we can approach qualifying in good shape and hopefully get the car into the top 10."

Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering
"A very normal Friday programme for us today. We had a look at both tyre compounds and there were no big surprises: the harder tyre needs a bit of warming up, but the softer looks like it is performing well. We had no particular problems with the car today, although we are not totally satisfied with the balance yet."

-credit: renault