|
24 June 2011, Free Practice 1
Vitaly Petrov, R31-05 Free Practice 1: P2,
1:41.227, 20 laps
Nick Heidfeld, R31-04 Free Practice 1: P5,
1:41.580, 23 laps
Vitaly Petrov led the way for Lotus Renault GP
on a cloudy first session of free practice for
the European Grand Prix on the streets of
Valencia.
Using chassis R31-05, Vitaly went second fastest
of the day so far as he worked through the
standard programme for the first running of the
weekend. His time of 1m 41.227s was just over
eight-tenths slower than the fastest set today,
showing there is still speed to be found.
Nick, in chassis R31-04 set the fifth fastest
time. Neither driver encountered any problems
today and set-up work found improvements in
their cars through the session.
This is the first race weekend where Pirelli’s
new medium compound tyre will be faced, so a lot
of time today is being spent understanding this
tyre on the rapidly evolving Valencia street
circuit.
Fastest today was Red Bull Racing’s Mark Webber
with a time of 1m 40.403s.
Tyre evaluation will be the focus of this
afternoon’s 90 minute practice as the drivers
the medium and soft compound Pirellis. As with
other street course, the track surface is always
‘green’ – dusty, dirty and not rubbered in - for
the first session because it is so rarely used
but it improves markedly over the course of the
weekend.
FP2
Nick Heidfeld, R31-04
Free Practice 1: P5, 1.41.580, 24 laps
Free Practice 2: P9, 1.39.040, 35 laps
Vitaly Petrov, R31-05
Free Practice 1: P2, 1.41.227, 20 laps
Free Practice 2: P10, 1.39.586, 27 laps
Nick Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov followed up
their strong FP1 timings with top ten finishes
during the second practice session at the
European Grand Prix in Valencia today.
Both drivers trialed the Pirelli medium and soft
compounds. Whilst on the soft compound, Nick
managed to secure a best time of 1.39.040
leaving him in P9 whilst Vitaly clocked in with
a 1.39.586 leaving him one place behind in P10.
Fernando Alonso, meanwhile, set the fastest time
of the afternoon with a 1.37.968. Lewis Hamilton
finished in P2 whilst Championship leader
Sebastian Vettel was third fastest.
25 June 2011, FP 3
Vitaly Petrov, R31-05
P9, 1:38.822, 17 laps
Nick Heidfeld, R31-04
P10, 1:39.113, 15 laps
Nick Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov completed their
preparations for the European Grand Prix at
Valencia with a productive third session of free
practice ahead of this afternoon’s hour of
qualifying.
Nick was the fastest car on track early in the
session as he and Vitaly evaluated the relative
tyre performance of Pirelli’s medium and soft
compound P Zeros.
On the softs in the latter part of the session,
Nick set a 1m 39.113s to end the session as
tenth fastest, whilst Vitaly set a late 1m
38.822s to pip Nick to ninth spot.
Sebastian Vettel topped the times with a 1m
37.258s to head Ferrari duo Fernando Alonso and
Felipe Massa.
Qualifying
Nick Heidfeld, R31-04
Qualifying: P9, 1:38.781, 17 laps
Vitaly Petrov, R31-05
Qualifying: P11, 1:39.068, 14 laps
It was a Qualifying session of mixed fortunes
for Lotus Renault GP, with Nick finishing in P9
whilst Vitaly just missed out on a place in Q3,
finishing in eleventh.
In considerably hotter conditions than were
experienced during yesterday’s free practice
sessions, Nick managed to secure his place in Q3
despite not posting a time in the final session.
Assuring himself of a place in the top 10 after
posting best times of 1.39.877 in Q1 and
1.38.781 in Q2, he did not run in the final
session on hearing that Adrian Sutil would not
be competing.
Vitaly, meanwhile, posted a time of 1.39.690s in
Q1 and then 1.39.068s in Q2, just three
hundredths short of Sutil who finished in P10.
Sebastian Vettel secured yet another pole
position with a time of 1.36.975s, almost two
tenths quicker than his Australian team mate
Mark Webber. After the race Nick
Heidfeld - “new regulations can have a positive
impact”
Nick, you’ve competed in Valencia a few times
before - how did this race rank alongside the
others?
NH: Well, today was a little disappointing given
where we both qualified for the race. We managed
to have some more fun out there today than we’ve
previously had here, and there were a few
overtaking manœuvres (a few more than in
previous years) so from that point of view it
was probably more open.
Tell us about how your race panned out?
NH: Well, what cost us a little bit were our
starts. I lost a position to Adrian (Sutil) and
then had to fight hard not to lose more. I
finished more or less where I had been for the
majority of the race (behind Sutil). I managed
to overtake him once but then he used DRS to get
past me and, unfortunately, I was not able to
attack any harder to get by him. To be honest, I
did not expect to finish behind a Force India
and a Toro Rosso so we need to look at why we
were so off the pace.
And overall this weekend?
NH: We pushed hard throughout the weekend, but
it’s just not been possible to get the pace out
of the car that we wanted. We will need to take
a step forward for Silverstone.
Looking ahead to Silverstone, that will be an
altogether different proposition…
NH: Yes, it will. Silverstone is a track with a
lot of high speed corners, and our car performs
well on these types of corners. We will also see
how the new regulations affect our car, but I
think it will have a positive impact for the
team.
|
