23/10/2015
NEWS STORY
Extreme rain at the Circuit of the Americas meant a cancelled FP2 after a disrupted FP1 to open the United States Grand Prix. Both Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean took to their cars for FP1, however a gearbox issue meant no timed laps for Pastor. The morning rain meant only a limited programme for Romain's time in the car.
Pastor had a gearbox problem in FP1 which stopped him from setting a timed lap. It was fixed for FP2, which was aborted because of the extreme rain. Romain completed ten laps using the wet (blue) and intermediate (green) Pirelli tyres. Pastor and Romain didn't run in the afternoon due to the adverse weather and track conditions.
Romain Grosjean: "It didn't feel too bad out on track, especially with a fresh set of intermediates, however there wasn't much point in completing a lot of laps. The main thing I learnt was that when they say everything is bigger in Texas they mean it; especially with the rain!"
Pastor Maldonado: "I only managed an installation lap today so it wasn't the busiest day I've ever had at the track. We had a gearbox issue as soon as I was on track so I didn't even set a lap time. The rain was pretty impressive, but it's not what you want when you want to be refining the set-up of the car and collecting data. It's the same for everyone and we'll be busy tomorrow if the weather improves."
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: "Today was a washout. Pastor suffered from a minor gearbox issue which we have fixed and Romain only completed a handful of laps in FP1. For FP2 we watched the skies and listened to the rain. We're closely monitoring the weather forecasts for the rest of the weekend."
Check out our Friday gallery, here.