18/07/2014
NEWS STORY
Sahara Force India began its preparations for the German Grand Prix with a solid performance in both of today's practice sessions at Hockenheim.
Nico Hulkenberg: "It was not the smoothest day, but from the team's perspective everyone is happy that we managed to get the main jobs done. It's hard to really know our absolute pace because my short run on the supersoft tyre was compromised by a couple of yellow flags. So I feel there is more performance and laptime available with a clean lap. I also think we can still find a bit of pace overnight with some balance changes."
Sergio Perez: "I'm feeling pretty happy about today because we finished the programme and we learned a lot. The car performed well in the afternoon, especially for the long runs, so I'm really looking forward to Sunday. We also worked hard on the qualifying pace, but I think wherever we qualify we can move forward and be in the fight for points."
Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal: "Today we saw the hottest track conditions of the year with a peak of 55 degrees this afternoon. Despite the heat, both tyre compounds performed well and we collected a lot of important data. The hot weather also makes car cooling even more of a challenge and so determining our cooling levels for the weekend was one of the main tasks of the day. Performance-wise I think we can feel reasonably satisfied with the outcome of the two sessions. The long-run pace appears to be competitive, more so than in previous races, and the drivers spoke positively about the long-run balance. Tonight will be a case of ironing out the final issues and trying to optimise our one lap pace with the aim of qualifying well tomorrow."
Check out our Friday gallery, here.