Formula 1

Friday practice trouble-free for Sauber

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Sauber had a trouble-free Friday in Turkey today as Kamui Kobayashi and Pedro de la Rosa completed their planned race preparations without hindrance on the hot and dusty track at Istanbul Park.

Kamui Kobayashi, who finished the day thirteenth fastest, said the team still have work to do to get the car set-up correct. “To me the balance of the car felt fine but we do have two areas to look at, said the Japanese driver. “We have a lack of grip and we are too slow on the straights.

“If you work on one issue you tend to increase the other one. But we will find a good compromise. I enjoyed driving a lot and as we had no trouble with the car it was a productive day for us.”

Pedro de la Rosa was also reasonably happy with how Friday in Turkey went. “In the afternoon we had a very good test with comparing the race tyres – the harder prime compound versus the softer option compound.

“We did a lot of race preparation today which went very well. The long runs were good and pretty consistent. What we still need to work on is to find the right balance with new tyres.”

James Key, the Sauber technical director, was pleased to get through a Friday without technical problems but, like his drivers, acknowledges that there is still work to be done before qualifying tomorrow: “It was a fairly standard Friday where we ran through the programmes on both cars looking at setting up the car for the circuit and the tyres.

“There are significant balance changes with different fuel levels and tyre compounds we need to consider for the qualifying and the race. Otherwise no technical problems, the drivers are fairly happy with the conditions they found the cars in.

“I think the race pace looks reasonable, we got some work to do for lower fuel levels but we have some clear directions to pursue for that. It's obviously very close in the midfield, so we have to make sure we get the best out of the cars.”

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