26/10/2012
NEWS STORY
It was a challenging start to the day for the Marussia F1 Team in India, as Charles Pic sampled the track for the very first time and both Charles and Timo Glock struggled to balance their cars at the Buddh International Circuit.
This morning Timo worked through the evaluation of a new front wing, while Charles focused on learning the circuit and an engine mapping programme.
This afternoon, they progressed to a normal mix of set-up work, qualifying runs and longer runs to evaluate the tyre compounds being used here in light of the expected higher track temperatures.
On paper this is not a track that favours the Team's MR01, as the long straight from turns 3-4 is better suited to the KERS-powered cars. The challenge will be to try and find the overall lap performance to mitigate the sector 1 challenge, so the Team will be working with the engineers this evening to make good progress ahead of FP3.
Timo Glock: "Today was a pretty normal Friday. The track was very dirty to begin with and FP1 didn't work that well for us because we struggled a bit with traffic and I never got a clear lap. In FP2 we worked on the set-up programme and it went pretty well with the tyres. The start of the session was okay and the long run was good, so that's important for the race on Sunday."
Charles Pic: "It has not been a straightforward day today. This is another new track for me and I'm enjoying the layout and characteristics. While FP1 went well for us, we have struggled in FP2 and I have experienced a few small issues which have interrupted our flow. There is more we can do to improve ourselves for tomorrow, however our long run pace was good which is positive."
John Booth, Team Principal: "A fairly routine Friday for us, aside from a few small upgrades around the front wing which we evaluated in FP1. At the minute these look like they represent a small gain, although we will confirm this with more data analysis this evening. Both drivers have completed their intended programmes, running the normal combination of low and high fuel. The track seems to be quite dirty and both drivers have been struggling for overall grip which, at present, does seem to be hurting our pace. However, I'm sure that with more running in FP3 and into the first part of qualifying, we will see the effects of this problem starting to dissipate."
Check out our Friday gallery, here.