Nico Hülkenberg had two very different free practice sessions at Silverstone on Friday, ending third in the first and fifteenth in the second, although the latter was not as representative as it seems.
The Sahara Force India ended up as best of the rest behind the Mercedes AMG PETRONAS duo of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg in FP1, but did not use the Soft Pirelli tyre in the afternoon that meant his pace appeared to not be as strong as it had been in the morning.
Hülkenberg was not worried about his times in the afternoon, but is hopeful that the team can solve the issues they had with the gusty conditions should they continue into the rest of the weekend.
“It was a pretty standard Friday, even though we had gale-strength winds in the afternoon that really made the conditions difficult out there,” said Hülkenberg. “The times don’t tell the whole story, as we didn’t run the soft tyres in the afternoon and so our final positions don’t look that good.
“Across the two sessions, we ran all three compounds, although there is not a huge difference in feeling between them. We have a few areas to improve, but in general I am quite happy with the balance of the car.
“It will be important to find a way to reduce the effects of the wind on the car and hopefully we’ll find a bit more performance for tomorrow.”
