It was a mixed day on track for the two Sauber F1 Team drivers in Brazil, with Esteban Gutierrez suffering a number of mechanical issues, while team-mate Adrian Sutil believed he had a promising day at Interlagos.
Gutierrez could only manage six laps and failed to set a time during first practice due to an apparent MGUK issue, and then stopped on track towards the end of the second session with another electrical issue after setting the fourteenth fastest time.
“For me it was an unfortunate day, because we were having trouble the whole day,” said Gutierrez. “On the other hand, I was able to run for at least a few laps to get a feeling for the track and the new surface. It was also important to see how the tyres behaved and to see how the car’s balance was.
“We did not have a lot of time to find the best set-up today. We will try our best to catch up tomorrow.”
Sutil felt he had a good day, finishing eleventh in first practice and fifteenth in the second, but with cooler temperatures expected for the remainder of the weekend, he believes Friday’s running maybe insignificant and a different set-up will be need to be found on Saturday.
“It was a good day,” reflected Sutil. “We chose a different set-up to Esteban in order to make a comparison. In the morning everything went well due to the lower temperatures, whereas the weather conditions changed completely during the afternoon session.
“The asphalt temperatures were quite high, so the grip got less and, therefore, the lap times were in general slower. We had to choose another set-up for the car, which was not easy.
“Tomorrow it will depend on the weather. We will probably have cooler conditions, which means we need to find a different set-up. It will not be an easy weekend.”
