Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne showed the wet weather promise of the Toro Rosso STR7 once again with third and fourth places respectively at Spa on Friday. After a five week summer break, Ricciardo was delighted to be back in action and added that he felt instantly confident with the car despite the horrendous conditions.
“The morning session went pretty well and right from the start, we had a good feel for the car in the wet. In fact, it’s been like that before when we have had wet race weekends and the car gives us confidence in these conditions immediately. We were able to do some good lap times and even with all the rain, it was nice to be out on this great track.”
Vergne was also encouraged by the performance of the car on full wets, although forecasts indicate a dry qualifying session.
“This morning, as is usually the case in the rain, the car performed very well on the Extreme tyres. There were no problems and our lap times for me and Daniel were respectable. However, this afternoon, the rain was really too heavy to do anything worthwhile, so we only went out right at the end to do a practice start off the grid.”
Chief Engineer Laurent Mekies is predicting a hectic morning session on Saturday as the team look to understand the tyre options ahead of qualifying and the 44 lap race.
“A wet day from start to finish and we only really ran the cars in the morning on the extreme wet tyres, because the conditions in the afternoon were too bad. It was the same situation for everyone and it means that tomorrow morning’s free practice session will be very busy, as we try and cram in all the work required in preparation for qualifying and the race. Understanding the behaviour of the Medium and Hard tyres will as usual be a key factor, while we will also want to evaluate the few updates we brought here to Spa. The forecast is for the rest of the weekend to be dry, so now we can put today behind us and concentrate on preparing as well as possible for the race.”
