24/07/2009
NEWS STORY
The first day of testing for the Hungarian Grand Prix is traditionally very difficult to interpret or to offer pointers because of the track conditions, which usually change significantly over the course of the weekend. This Friday was no exception to that rule, with 19 drivers all within eleven tenths and the two Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro drivers ending the day on track with contrasting impressions.
Stefano Domenicali: It was a slightly different Friday to usual. This was because we also began to work with a view to next season, especially so in the morning. The classification is very tight and clearly, while evaluating it, we have to take into account the usual unknowns linked to fuel loads and tyre use. We still have work to do to be as well prepared as possible for tomorrow's qualifying which is bound to be very tight. It won't take much to be either on the front row or down the back.
Felipe Massa: I'm not happy with how things went today. I struggled a lot just to get the balance on the car to an acceptable level and found the tyres offered little grip, especially the harder ones, to such an extent I wasn't able to do a real long run on either types of tyre. On top of that, in the final part of the second session I had a problem with the rear suspension after going off the track, which cost me valuable time. Here, the conditions change a lot from one day to the next and I really hope that will be the case again this time.
Kimi Raikkonen: Today, the car wasn't that bad. There are still some small things that we can work on to make it quicker, but overall, I am reasonably happy. This year, the supersoft tyre has always been very difficult to manage, but here it seems the situation is rather more straightforward. We'll see what we can manage tomorrow, but this is definitely a better Friday than those in the recent past. Seeing how close the times are, we will have to try and do the maximum to get a good grid position. It seems to me that the performance level of the various cars at this track is much closer one to the other.
Chris Dyer: A very busy Friday for the team, both because we worked in a slightly different way to usual and because we had to solve a few problems on the rear suspension, linked to some off track excursions. Furthermore, we did the usual job of comparing the two types of tyre brought here by Bridgestone and it's clear we are struggling a bit, as indeed we usually do, in terms of doing a time on the first flying lap, especially on the harder tyre. From what we could see in today's three hours of practice, everyone is very evenly matched and we will have to do our utmost to get a good qualifying result, which here more than at some other tracks, is very important in terms of the outcome of the race.