01/09/2017
NEWS STORY
Sahara Force India completed a positive first day of action in Monza as the sun shone on the Northern Italian circuit.
Sergio Perez: "It's been a busy day and I feel quite happy heading into the weekend. We expected to lose some track time due to the rain, but it didn't hit us so we were able to maximise our mileage. We collected some important information to help us set the car up for tomorrow. I wasn't as happy with the car balance during the afternoon session, but we have enough data to look into the issue and understand how to fix it overnight."
Esteban Ocon: "It was a solid day of practice. We were testing a lot of different things and I think we came away with some very good data at the end of the day. I am pretty happy with how things went and the work we completed - we will need to do the same tomorrow in the final practice session before qualifying. There was a lot of track evolution as the day progressed: the main straight, in particular, has been resurfaced and the practice starts felt a bit slippery. It started raining at one point, but it didn't last long so it didn't really influence our day."
Robert Fernley: "It's been a pretty standard day and the weather was kind to us in the end, despite the prediction of thunderstorms. Right from the start, both drivers were quite happy with the baseline balance of the car, which allowed us to move through our test programme. We did some work to evaluate the different rear wing levels, which is something we always do here in Monza, and also to understand the tyre compounds we will be racing. Esteban was happier about his car than Sergio this afternoon, so we will need to look into the reasons for this and see how we can improve ahead of qualifying. There is still some work to do because we have seen the margins between cars will be very small. We have a solid base to build on, but a few tenths more or less will mean a big swing in terms of grid position, and we need to be ready for a very competitive Saturday."