26/10/2012
NEWS STORY
Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher completed the first two practice sessions for the 2012 Airtel Indian Grand Prix at the Buddh International Circuit today.
In total, Michael and Nico completed 123 laps today in practice - over two race distances. Both drivers focused on tyre evaluation work, along with set-up programmes on high and low fuel. The fastest times in P1 and P2 were respectively 0.8s and 0.5s slower than in the same sessions last year.
Nico Rosberg: We learned a lot in the two practice sessions today and found some good set-up directions, so it was a decent day. Fourth place is not our realistic position at the moment but I am confident that we're looking a little better here than at the previous two races.
Michael Schumacher: We had two sessions today where we worked mainly on long runs and the performance was reasonable by the end of the day. The car balance was ok, particularly in the first sector with the slower corners, and as such confirmed the performance that we expected from the circuit characteristics. With the soft tyres, I didn't really get a lap together, but we managed to build a basis to work on for the rest of the weekend.
Ross Brawn: We've had a very solid day's work here today and completed our planned programme. Our focus was on getting the car balanced which went pretty well over the two sessions. The tyres are very consistent here and, whilst there are still improvements to make to the car, we're looking in reasonable shape for the weekend.
Norbert Haug: A positive first day for our team. It would be wrong to read too much into Nico's position in the second session but all in all this was a better Friday for us than we had during the last couple of races.
Check out our Friday gallery, here.