F1 Spa-Francorchamps - FRI - Free Practice

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium, Aug 28, 2009

LEWIS HAMILTON
- MP4-24-05
P1 programme
- 4 laps
- No time (20th)
P2 programme
- 29 laps
- 1m47.201s (1st)

Lewis and his engineers opted to sit out the majority of this morning�s wet session, instead completing a series of installation laps to evaluate a number of minor new components for this weekend�s race. As a result, he finished the session at the bottom of the timesheets without setting a laptime.


The morning�s curtailed running placed greater emphasis onto the afternoon session, and the team quickly worked through its morning set-up work before beginning a tyre analysis programme. With a large number of variables to assess � and a few minor niggles, such as a broken component within the cockpit hampering running � Lewis and his engineers will spend the evening properly examining the full potential of MP4-24�s performance ahead of P3 and qualifying tomorrow.

Nonetheless, Lewis was pleased with the overall pace of the car today � the first proper test of the upgraded package at a high-speed circuit � and finished the day fastest overall.

�I�m happier today than I expected,� he said. �We don�t have as much downforce as some of the other teams, so we�re not as quick as we�d like to be, especially in the middle sector. Fortunately, however, we have KERS and can use it to our advantage in the first and third sectors.

�The car didn�t feel fantastic today � but we only really had one session to find a set-up so we�ve got some changes to make overnight. Still, this is a massive improvement compared with Turkey or Silverstone, and we look competitive, which is important, so we�re not unhappy.�

HEIKKI KOVALAINEN
- MP4-24-03
P1 programme
- 11 laps
- 1m53.838s (8th)
P2 programme
- 33 laps
- 1m47.743s (12th)

Heikki waited until the track was properly damp before beginning his morning programme on Bridgestone wet-compound tyres. He completed limited running, briefly running wide onto the Turn Eight gravel, but set the eighth-fastest time of the morning session.

Like his team-mate, Heikki crammed two sessions� worth of work into this afternoon, busily working through set-up changes before beginning a lengthy long-run programme to evaluate the tyres. He completed two long runs this afternoon: nine laps on Primes (1m48.321s best), nine laps on Options (1m47.974s).

�I think slower speed corners suit our car better than high-speed stuff,� Heikki said. �So I guess we are still losing a bit of time in the high-speed corners compared to the fastest cars. But we�ve definitely made some good improvements in this area and the car feels positive to drive and seems to be working quite well around here.

�We�re in the hunt again, which is encouraging, and we�re working on a strong strategy for the race. We should be able to fight for a good starting position in qualifying tomorrow.�

COMMENTS

MARTIN WHITMARSH
Team principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
�As always at Spa, the weather played a prominent role in our preparations for the race � but the local micro-climate is one of the idiosyncrasies of the place, and the reason why it so often throws up an unusual result. As an example, this morning�s rainfall initially looked like a passing shower but ended up rendering much of P1 useless for practical evaluation.

�Into this afternoon�s practice, the blue skies enabled us to complete some more meaningful running as we crammed a busy set-up evaluation and a tyre analysis programme into a single session. The lack of running means there�s still scope for further improvement, and there�s plenty of work to be done overnight, but we end the first day reasonably encouraged by the speed of our overall package.�

NORBERT HAUG
Vice-president, Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
�Today was a positive start to our weekend. Having said that, the top 10 is only separated by 0.4s and there are 18 cars � including the top two in the world championship in 17th and 18th spots � within less than a second of each other. This shows just how mega-competitive Formula 1 is these days and today was probably the Friday with the closest lap times in the history of this demanding traditional 7km circuit.

�However, things will probably look different tomorrow. I�m definitely not expecting the four guys fighting for the world championship to be in positions four, 10, 17 and 18 on the grid.

�Neither Lewis nor Heikki have been completely happy with the set-ups of their cars so there will be some work to be done before tomorrow. But, all in all, Spa has started off better than I would have expected, and everybody in the team has been working flat out to make sure we are continuing in that direction.�



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