07/07/2017
NEWS STORY
Sahara Force India began its preparations for this weekend's Austrian Grand Prix with Sergio Perez, Esteban Ocon and Alfonso Celis all in action during today's practice sessions.
Sergio Perez: "It's been a difficult day trying to get up to speed this afternoon. I've struggled with the balance of the car - mainly the corner entry stability and with the rear - so we've been trying to solve those issues. We need to understand where we can improve tonight and pick up some speed tomorrow to make sure was can be in the fight for Q3."
Esteban Ocon: "A solid day for me with no real issues or problems. We found some more speed with every run, but there is still room for improvement and I know there is more to come tomorrow - from me, from the car; in all areas really. It's going to be a really tight grid tomorrow with small margins so the work we do tonight will be very important."
Alfonso Celis: "It was a shame to have the electrical problem with the car because it really limited what we could achieve - just 15 laps, mainly of aero work. The issue ended the session early and we didn't get to start the performance work. It's a track that I love so I'm disappointed we couldn't do more laps."
Robert Fernley: "A mixed day with differing fortunes on each side of the garage. Esteban's day was fairly routine as we worked through the usual Friday tasks and steadily improved the set-up. The other car encountered issues with the energy store, which forced us to make some significant hardware changes. It cut short Alfonso's opportunity in the car and delayed Sergio's afternoon programme. It's put Sergio on the backfoot and we have some work to do tonight to get the car more to his liking."
Check out our Friday gallery from Spielberg, here.