Sauber F1 Team were having a fairly positive day in free practice today, before Adrian Sutil hit the barrier in P1 and wet weather in P2 disrupted both drivers progress.
Esteban Gutierrez and Sutil finished P1 in twelfth and seventeenth place respectively. In P2 the Sauber duo could only run 8 laps each, but were reasonably happy with their laps towards the end of the session on a drying track, with the supersoft tyres.
Gutierrez completed 33 laps in P1, and felt the car was improving with every lap before a wet P2 ruined any real progress for the Mexican. “Overall it was a good day. We lost valuable time in FP2 due to the weather conditions.”
“During the session in the morning we made some changes to the car and it was getting better. We were able to improve lap by lap. I think we worked in the right direction. In FP2 I could only run for a few laps, so it is not representative due to the conditions and the traffic on track.”
Sutil had a good supersoft run on a drying track in P2. The German says he’s comfortable with the car’s balance but feels improvements can be made. “At the end of FP2, we were ale to run a few laps on supersoft tyres, which worked out well.”
“The car’s balance is decent. In general, we still have issues which we need to solve. The drivability needs to be improved.”
Sutil also described what happened when he hit the barrier in P1. “In FP1 I had a snap oversteer in turn 5, so I touched the barrier. The tyres were not up to temperature and it was difficult to keep the car under control. However, it was my mistake.”
Head of Track Engineering, Giampaolo Dall’ara tried to look at the positive side of the sessions as he described the slight progress the team made in P1. “Overall, the morning session was quite positive. We were able to work through our planned programmed and to make a little progress. The second session was heavily influenced by the weather – and towards the end, we at least got a taste of the supersoft tyres.”
