05/09/2014
NEWS STORY
Sahara Force India enjoyed a positive day of practice for the Italian Grand Prix in Monza with Daniel Juncadella, Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez behind the wheel of the VJM07.
Nico Hulkenberg: "This morning was quite normal for a Friday, but the afternoon was a bit more difficult and it was not easy to find a nice rhythm. I just didn't find the balance and harmony I was looking for and that showed in the lap times. So we need to dig deep into the data and see what we can improve for tomorrow. Apart from that it was a successful day with the tyre work and collecting the long-run data."
Sergio Perez: "Today was a promising start for our weekend and we managed to do everything we had planned. We have good pace already, especially during the long runs, where we look competitive. Now it's just a matter of getting everything right and having a good qualifying position tomorrow to make the most of our strengths."
Daniel Juncadella: "I'm always happy to drive the car whenever there is an opportunity, but obviously my programme was very short today - just 30 minutes and one set of hard tyres. It was a chance for me to experience the car in the low downforce set-up, which actually felt better than I was expecting. The main job was to check the baseline set-up and make sure there was nothing major to change before Checo took over. After my install lap I also did some practice starts to give the team information on the clutch settings."
Otmar Szafnauer, Chief Operating Officer: "We had all three drivers in action today with Daniel spending the opening 30 minutes of free practice in Checo's car. Considering the tight schedule, he did an excellent job of evaluating the set-up and completing the systems checks. His feedback and direction helped Sergio for the rest of the session. The remainder of the day was fairly straightforward for Nico and Checo, and we head into the weekend having done most of our homework in terms of data collection. The pace looks promising and with some more tweaks tonight we should be in good shape going into qualifying."
Check out our Practice gallery, here.