Formula 1

Limited Mileage For HRT At Soaked Spa

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HRT only completed a total 24 laps throughout the day as heavy rain compromised them in Friday Practice for the Belgian Grand Prix. Pedro de la Rosa was able to get some running in during the morning session and feels the team achieved as much as was possible under the circumstances.

“I was surprised by the large amount of rain that poured down during both sessions. We anticipated the morning session to be less wet and that’s why we made the most of it to complete our only run. We only did a few laps mainly to confirm that the car and the systems worked well, so in the afternoon, with the track in even worse conditions, we decided not to go out as it didn’t contribute anything to us. It’s been almost a month since we drove the car and the positive side was that I was able to get rid of the rust and get a feel for the car. For tomorrow we have an extra set of dry tyres and as today we were unable to test with a full deposit, that will be a priority”.

Teammate Narain Karthikeyan didn’t turn a wheel though after the Spanish team wrote off the afternoon session. The Indian had vacated his car for Dani Clos in the morning but didn’t seem to frustrated by it.

“Today I was unable to do any laps as the conditions were terrible, but you can’t fight against these things so the best thing is to focus on tomorrow. No rain is anticipated so we will work on making up for lost time from the very start and to get some feel for the car. It will be an intense session but I’m really looking forward to going out on track”.

Clos enjoyed the experience of driving around Spa despite the far from favourable conditions and was happy with his own display after finishing just a tenth behind de la Rosa.

“Once again I got the opportunity to get into the F112 and it was fantastic. However the session wasn’t easy because of the conditions we faced. The track was very wet and the objective was to make sure that there were no problems with the car’s systems and assess the balance. In that sense everything went well and I felt very comfortable so I’m very happy with the job we did”. 

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