16/09/2016
NEWS STORY
Lewis ended the first session in P4 with Nico P5. Nico then set the fastest time of the day in the second session with Lewis P7. Lewis was forced to sit out the end of the second session after a hydraulic leak was detected on his car while out on track. Both drivers ran the Soft and Ultrasoft compound tyre in the first session, the Soft, SuperSoft and UltraSoft in the second session.
Nico Rosberg: It's been a solid start to the weekend. Definitely better than last year. The first session was going okay until I hit the wall at Turn 18. That wasn't ideal - but luckily the impact wasn't too heavy, so I managed to get the car back to the pits and the guys had it ready in time for FP2. The second session felt better but we still have some room for improvement. It's really close between ourselves, Red Bull and Ferrari - much closer than at some other tracks for sure - so it looks like a big battle ahead. I'm looking forward to it.
Lewis Hamilton: Two relatively good sessions today. Running the halo was no real issue. I barely noticed it, to be honest - just in my mirrors, where it blocked the view slightly. We had a small hydraulic issue at the end of FP2 but it doesn't look like anything serious. The guys are working on it and it should be fine for tomorrow, which is the main thing. Our pace looked okay today. Definitely much better than last year so I'd say we're looking relatively strong.
Paddy Lowe, Executive Director (Technical): A busy evening, with a lot of work to do to get our setup correct and study performance on all three tyre compounds - including the Ultrasoft, which appears at this circuit for the first time. It's completely open in terms of what will be the best tyres for the race, so we have a lot of homework to do. Unfortunately, we lost most of the second session with Lewis' car due to a hydraulic leak. The issue itself is quite simple to fix but we lost valuable track time - particularly long run experience on the SuperSoft, which had been the plan for Lewis. We do, however, have plenty of data from observing the other teams, so we'll be busy tonight trying to improve the car further for qualifying and the race. Overall, though, not a bad start to the weekend.
Check out our Friday gallery from Singapore, here.