11/06/2010
NEWS STORY
The Force India F1 Team's Canadian Grand Prix weekend got off to a very positive start with Adrian Sutil and Tonio Liuzzi finishing both of today's practice sessions in the top 12. Adrian was 11th quickest in the morning and improved his time by almost two seconds to post the sixth quickest time in the second session. Tonio also enjoyed a productive opening day with the eighth best time in FP1 and the 10th fastest in the afternoon.
The pair used the two 90 minute practices to evaluate the VJM03 in low downforce trim and gather further information on the new upgrades used this weekend, including a new front wing and mirror mounting positions. Additionally, the team was able to complete back to back tests of the standard rear wing and the switchable rear wing used for the first time in Turkey.
Adrian Sutil: It went OK today. I had a small issue at the end of the morning session so I missed my final run of first practice. The team did a great job to fix it over lunch and we could put in a really good session in the afternoon. After the delays we had in Turkey we could finally do a comparison between the standard rear wing and the switchable rear wing and I could see the difference it made. In addition to the set up and baseline work we also completed our normal tyre programme. The surface grip is one of the lowest in the calendar and the car is moving around a lot so the soft tyre is quite difficult to use, particularly on the long runs. Over one lap it is much better but to go over any sort of distance is very hard as the tyre just grains up so much. It's the same for everybody though so we'll look at the information overnight and hopefully there will be a little bit more grip tomorrow when there has been more running. The times look pretty good and I felt comfortable so I'm really hopeful of a good result in qualifying.
Tonio Liuzzi: Today was very positive and definitely a good place to start from. We went in a good direction and got a lot of information to look at for the qualifying. Everything felt a bit better and I was more comfortable, which shows in the times, but it's difficult to compare here with other races as the track doesn't have any grip at all right now. Overall I think we're looking pretty good, particularly with the harder tyre - I think we are spot on with the set-up on this compound. I didn't get a clear run on the new option tyres in FP2, which was a shame as you only get a couple of laps where they can work at the optimum. It will be an interesting weekend and I think we can be quite encouraged by the speed we've shown here today.
Dominic Harlow, chief race engineer: We're satisfied with what was acheived today. The track was very dirty to start with, but things gradually improved. Aside from one glitch this morning on Adrian's car the programmes were well executed. Free Practice two's tyre evaluations were interesting and there's certainly plenty to think about for the race. Our performance seems reasonable, and with one or two improvements that we can make for tomorrow I think we can be competitive in qualifying and on Sunday.