12/10/2012
NEWS STORY
Michael (52 laps) and Nico (60 laps) completed a total of 112 laps today, just over two full race distances. Both drivers conducted further aerodynamic development work at the start of the first practice session. The remainder of practice focused on set-up programmes and race preparation on higher fuel loads.
Michael Schumacher: I was pleased with both sessions today. As expected, it looks like our car is better suited to the circuit. The day went well, so I think we can get into the top ten tomorrow and plan our strategy on that basis. We have made some small changes, nothing major, and we looked ok on our long runs. Of course, I haven't been able to study the times from the other teams yet, but we will try to secure a solid result this weekend.
Nico Rosberg: It was a good day for us and we made some progress over the two practice sessions. We had some small new things to try on the car which worked quite well, and we seem to be looking better here than in Suzuka. So I'm looking forward to tomorrow and seeing where we are compared to the other cars.
Ross Brawn: We've had a very solid Friday working through our planned programme and were able to complete a lot of running. The car seems reasonable on lower fuel levels, although there is still work to be done on high fuel. The grip evolves very rapidly here and I expect we will have a different track on Sunday to the one that we saw today, so we need to try and anticipate that. Overall it's been a pretty reasonable day.
Norbert Haug: Two good sessions without interruptions for our team today. Michael and Nico did lots of laps in both sessions during which we ran through our planned programme. Without reading anything into our positions today, we have a decent base for tomorrow. With today's data and the observations from the drivers, we will try and further improve our set-up for both qualifying and the race on Sunday.
Check out our Friday gallery, here.