Heikki Kovalainen was hit by hydraulics problems this afternoon in Hungary, but overall Lotus had a productive day of practice in Budapest.
The team completed 88 laps in total and Jarno Trulli finished the day nearly a second faster than the nearest Virgin Racing driver Timo Glock.
“It was a good, trouble free Friday session, so I'm very happy with how it went,” said Trulli. “We did a lot of work on the setup so generally the car balance hasn't been too bad. Obviously it's a bumpy circuit which evolves all the time, so it's important to follow up the evolution.
“We've also been able to evaluate the tyres, which is important for both qualifying tomorrow and for the race on Sunday.”
Kovalainen had one less session than his teammate today because of the reliability issue. However, the Finn is still optimistic about the team’s chances here at the Hungaroring.
“The track is good and there's a great atmosphere out there,” he said. “This morning we were able to complete the programme without any problems, but when I went out this afternoon we almost immediately had a mechanical issue that unfortunately the boys couldn't fix, so we lost the afternoon session. That's the way it goes sometimes, but I'm sure that we'll be ok tomorrow.
“It's still too early to say how well suited the car is to the track, I'd have obviously had a better idea if I'd been able to run this afternoon, but this morning was pretty encouraging, and it's really not too bad at all when we look at our direct competitors.”
Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne was disappointed with the technical issue today and is targeting better reliability for the remainder of this Hungarian Grand Prix weekend.
“[It was] a reasonable day although we had a hydraulic issue on Heikki's car which unfortunately limited his running in the second session,” said Gascoyne. “With Jarno we were able to complete the full programme, and the cars look like they are where we expect them to be and we have to make sure we have a reliable Saturday and Sunday.”
