Kevin Magnussen is happy with his performance on the opening day of practice for the German Grand Prix.
The Renault Sport Formula 1 Team driver finished ahead of the Sauber of Felipe Nasr in Free Practice 1. With a fastest lap time of 1:18.933 to go eighteenth fastest. He was only able to improve by 0.877 in Free Practice 2 to go seventh fastest.
The Dane believes the Enstone-based outfit can make some improvements with the brake balance but adds this is part of the work they do on the opening day of the Grand Prix weekend.
“I completed plenty of laps today,” said Magnussen. “We didn’t have any issues with the car, which is always promising.
“We do have a few areas to work on but we did make decent progress through the day. We can make some improvements on how we use the supersoft tyre and with our brake balance too. That’s all part of the work we do on Friday then overnight ahead of tomorrow’s final practice and qualifying.”
Renault team-mate Jolyon Palmer only completed in the second practice session as he was replaced by development driver Esteban Ocon for the opening session. When the Brit finally took the wheel of the RS16 at the Hockenheimring he finished in twentieth. Finishing the session with a time of 1:18.313 for Renault.
After only one session, Palmer believes Renault still have some improvements to be made with the car.
“This morning was pretty easy for me,” said Palmer. “As I wasn’t in the car so this afternoon was pretty full.
“We ran a good number of laps in the afternoon – the joint highest tally – but it’s fair to say we still have some improvements to be made with the car. The good thing is we have a lot of data and as we saw in Budapest it is possible to unlock quite a bit more pace.”
