After a difficult weekend in Malaysia, Sauber appear to be bouncing back to where they were in Australia, consistent running for both Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr, means they go into qualifying in the best condition.
Ericsson had the worst weekend in Malaysia. A good start was ruined after he slid into the gravel trap at the first corner on lap 4, as a result he will hoping to return to his points scoring form seen in the first race.
During practice 1 he managed 14th place, improving by 1 position in practice 2. When asked about his pace he said; “It has been a decent day. I did plenty of laps working through the planned programme. I think I had been struggling a bit to get a good feeling for the car on new tyres.
“However, on used tyres during the race simulation at the end of the day we were quite competitive, and I felt comfortable, which is promising for the race. Now, we need to fine tune the set-up of the car overnight to make sure of having a good qualifying tomorrow.”
Meanwhile team mate Nasr has had a better weekend so far. Good running in practice 1 meant he finished behind the two Mercedes and Ferrari‘s lining up as best of the rest. His pace continued into the second session where he finished 8th. He is aiming high for the weekend, saying; “I think we have a good chance of scoring points again.”
When asked about the session overall the young Brazilian commented; “It was a good day. I am satisfied as I think we have fixed the issues we had in Malaysia.
“The updates we brought seem to work well. We need to make sure we do a good job in qualifying and find a suitable set-up for the race.”
