Spanish GP: Williams Friday practice report

Objectives P1
* Aero set-up work
* Fuel system checks

Objectives P2
* Short and long run tyre tests for qualifying and the race
* Further aero set-up work

Conclusions - Sam Michael, Technical Director

"We had a normal Friday during which we carried out short runs to prepare for qualifying and long runs to prepare for the race. The tyres are much closer than we anticipated on the basis of the tests we've had here and the hard tyres look stronger than they have at other circuits. We should therefore expect to see more even strategies from the teams on Sunday, rather than these unbalanced strategies that we've seen in the first four races of the year whereby people have run very short final stints."

Nico Rosberg
Runs P1: 1 install (new prime), 7 (new prime), 7 (scrubbed prime), 5 (scrubbed prime)
Runs P2: 3 (scrubbed prime), 11 (new option), 11 (new prime), 4 (new option), 4 (scrubbed option)

"Today was our first run with the new aero components on the car and they all seemed to work well. They're giving us a few tenths extra per lap so we've made definite progress. Everyone has brought new developments here though so we will see how things look in qualifying. We also ran some tyre compares today. It's not obvious which direction will be the right one, so strategy is going to be very important and will have a major impact on the race."

Kazuki Nakajima
Runs P1: 1 install (new prime), 8 (scrubbed prime), 4 (scrubbed prime), 4 (scrubbed prime)
Runs P2: 5 (scrubbed prime), 4 (new prime), 4 (new option), 12 (scrubbed option), 4 (new option)

"We had a pretty good day and it seems that all the updates are working well. I found it quite difficult to get enough grip with the hard tyre, the soft one definitely has the advantage for me. We now need to focus our attention on qualifying well tomorrow."

-credit: williams