06/05/2011
NEWS STORY
On the first day of practice sessions in Istanbul Park, the drivers went up against a mix of weather conditions, with a wet track due to the rain. Both Hispania Racing cars came out in the first session with wet tyres. In the afternoon session, the track dried up thanks to the sun that made itself present now and again and the drivers were able to try out the soft range tyres.
Narain finished the morning in 20th place with a best time of 1:48.461 during his 8 laps and the afternoon he ran 29 laps finishing in 22nd with a time of 1:31.320. Tonio got through 20 laps in the morning finishing in 16th position clocking a best time of 1:44.787, in the afternoon he finished in 23rd posting a best time of 1:31.989 after 30 laps.
Narain Karthikeyan: "We tried our updates out today, with the first session being wet we obviously couldn't evaluate much but after the second session it's clear that the updates are a positive improvement. The team is going in the right direction. Today we worked on the mechanical balance of the car and now we have to take a look at the data to see if we improved. Personally, I need to get some laps under my belt on this track because last time I came in 2005 it was an absolute disaster, I experienced a lot of mechanical problems. So bit by bit it's getting better. Unfortunately I didn't get a good run on the option tyres but the primes were fine. I think the options will be quicker in the race".
Vitantonio Liuzzi: "Today we had a decent day of testing. The morning was good as it was my first chance to try out this specific car with the Pirelli tyres in wet conditions, so I got some good data and strung together some good laps. In the afternoon we did a good amount of laps, we needed to understand a few things about our new updates so we had to re-balance the car and work on the set-up meaning that in the end, with the option tyres, we couldn't do much as there was a lot of traffic and yellow flags. But, all in all, we've come away with good data to work with tomorrow".
Colin Kolles, Hispania Racing Team Principal: "I'm confident that we took a step forward today. It's a shame that Tonio wasn't able to put a lap together on the soft tyres but he did a good job on the prime tyres. I think that tomorrow we will look even better and, as I said before, we've taken another step forward".
To check out our Istanbul practice gallery, click here.