06/07/2012
NEWS STORY
Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean took to the Silverstone track briefly today for the first practice sessions ahead of Sunday's British Grand Prix. The day's running programme was beset by persistent and continual rain which meant only Pirelli's wet weather tyres were used.
Kimi Raikkonen: "It was wet. It's a shame we don't have more wet tyres to be able to get more track time, but if it's going to rain for the whole weekend then everybody tries to save their allocation. We were able to test certain things so it wasn't a total waste of time. It was interesting to see the new section of the track; it's only a few corners so it doesn't make too much difference to a lap. Hopefully tomorrow the weather will be a bit better. Even if it is wet again, everyone will go out in practice and in qualifying so we should see a drier line emerge. When there are only a couple of cars running this doesn't happen and there's much more chance of aquaplaning, but with everyone out there it should be much better."
Romain Grosjean: "It wasn't the busiest day ever due to the weather conditions but still FP1 went well. The car looks to be good and consistent. We tested a few new aero parts which have worked pretty well. I also learnt that the old part of the circuit has a bit more grip than the new part. At the end of FP1 this morning it was incredibly wet and the same conditions at the start of FP2 so we had to wait and be patient. I would have liked to have more track time but due to the regulations on tyres we didn't want to use up all our wet tyre allocation as more rain is expected on Saturday and Sunday. We looked at putting inters on but it wasn't dry enough so we couldn't really do many laps this afternoon. The conditions were a shame for the fans out there who came to watch us today, but we always appreciate their support."
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: We ran evaluations of our wet weather setup, completing a limited number of laps with both cars because of the inclement conditions. Both cars ran Pirelli's full wet tyre, with Kimi completing limited running on the intermediate tyre at the end of the second practice session.
James Allison, Technical Director: "It's never too much fun in conditions like we saw today as it is always a big dilemma about whether to risk the car to learn about what it is like to run in the conditions. We haven't done a lot of wet weather running this year so it was useful for us to establish that the car behaves well in these conditions, especially as it may well be wet in the race. We were able to validate that all the wings are doing what they are supposed to do, even when the car is wet, and we did that with both drivers. Our pace in the morning showed that we don't have any problems in these conditions. We were also able to conduct some pit stop practices which went well. Tomorrow and qualifying should be interesting."
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