The Etihad Aldar Spyker Formula One Team had a productive opening day of the Canadian Grand Prix today. Christijan Albers and Adrian Sutil completed a total of 55 and 50 laps respectively over the two free practice sessions held today at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal, with a best time of 1:19.453 and 1:19.662.

Both drivers worked on the set-up of their F8-VIIs throughout the day and evaluated the soft and supersoft tyre options available over the weekend. In the morning's session Christijan and Adrian initially struggled to find a balance on the dirty track surface, but as the track cleaned in the afternoon, both were able to improve their times by over two seconds and finish just one second away from the top 12.

Adrian Sutil: 'It was a difficult day as the track was very dirty at the beginning of the day and I had a lot of oversteer. It was just in the last 20 minutes that we started to get a good set-up and improve the balance and I could start to drive with some more confidence and push. It was very difficult to find the right set-up as conditions changed and the brake set-up was different to all the other circuits I have driven on. The softer tyre also started to grain very quickly but in the end we found something that will help. We still have some work to do tomorrow, when hopefully we will have a better day.'

Christijan Albers: 'It was a hard day today, but it was good all the same. We are getting closer with the set-up and I am getting more comfortable in the car as we found something in the set-up. We will see tomorrow for Qualifying, it's maybe too early to make predictions, but hopefully we will continue along this line to get stronger and stronger from now on.'

Mike Gascoyne, chief technical officer: 'We had a reasonable day with both cars. The track conditions in the morning session were quite difficult but as they improved during the second session, the general balance of both cars got better. We are still struggling with the rear tyres going off, but towards the end of the day it became less of an issue. Christijan is reasonably happy with his car and steadily improved the balance throughout the session, but Adrian struggled slightly. Both could have improved their times fairly significantly but for a couple of mistakes on their last runs, but overall we are fairly competitive with the group in front and hopefully will be in the same or a better position than we were in Monaco.'

To check out our Canada practice gallery, click here