19/10/2007
NEWS STORY
The opening day of practice for the concluding race of the 2007 FIA Formula One World Championship was a productive one for the Etihad Aldar Spyker Formula One Team. Both drivers completed their programmes of tyre comparison and set-up evaluation with no major mechanical issues.
Adrian Sutil, making his Interlagos track debut this weekend, spent the opening session learning the bumpy, anti-clockwise 4.3km circuit, clocking the 15th fastest time. Sakon Yamamoto meanwhile completed 25 laps to post the 18th quickest lap. Although rain made the newly-resurfaced Interlagos circuit extremely slippery, it did give Adrian and Sakon the opportunity to use both the standard and extreme wet Bridgestone Potenza tyre options.
The rain ceased over the lunchtime break and the track dried out to give a clean, dry line, which allowed Adrian and Sakon to try both dry tyre options. Although the times were not ultimately enough to lift the duo from the bottom of the time sheets, both were pleased with the progress today and are confident of further improvement tomorrow.
Adrian Sutil: We haven't changed anything on the car since China so it was a normal Friday practice day getting to learn the circuit. The track is very good to drive with some tricky parts, but it's not that difficult to learn so I felt very comfortable quite quickly. In the afternoon we waited until the track was dry and although it was not perfect conditions, we could still do set up work on the car and try out the tyres available here this weekend. The softer tyres seemed to grain very quickly on the second and third laps, but I hope there will be an improvement tomorrow.
Sakon Yamamoto: Today we had fairly changeable weather conditions with small showers in the morning and the track conditions were very wet. In the afternoon the track was slightly better and we could run with dry tyres to compare the soft and supersoft options here. The general feeling was OK, but the lap time was not good so I will try to keep working and there is more to come tomorrow.
Mike Gascoyne, chief technical officer: A fairly useful first day. Obviously in the morning the conditions were very wet so Adrian just familiarised himself with the circuit. In the drier afternoon session we managed to evaluate both sets of dry tyres and had no real issues. We know there is more performance to come in the car.
To check out our Interlagos practice gallery, click here