Jenson Button, P1 - 1:37.450, 2nd; P2 - 1:35.679, 1st
“The balance of the car really improved over the last couple of runs today after we had been struggling a little to find the right set-up early on. We completed a great deal of work with the two very different tyre compounds to establish what condition they would be in after longer runs. There seemed to be a lot of traffic on track today so my main concern was finding some clear air. It was a useful first day of running but we still have some work to do tomorrow to be happy with the balance for qualifying.”
Nico Rosberg, P1 - 1:37.860, 7th; P2 - 1:35.704, 2nd
“It’s been an interesting day for us. We’ve learnt a lot, particularly about the tyres and how to get the best out of them here. The one major thing for us at the moment though is that this season we have consistency from one track to another. We’re now going to a race and not getting any big surprises as we seem to have learnt from our mistakes from last year.”
Jarno Trulli, P1 - 1:37.764, 6th; P2 - 1:36.217, 6th
“That was a busy Friday for me. This morning we had an electrical problem which cost us a bit of track time but we recovered to complete our programme of work on set-up and tyres. The track surface wasn’t in fantastic condition this morning but it improved during the day. In general I’m still not happy with the car’s balance and pace so I hope we can analyse the data tonight and aim for better tomorrow. Then we can target another strong result on Sunday.”
Felipe Massa, P1 - 1:38.418, 15th; P2 - 1:36.847, 12th
“We are in a difficult situation on the technical front, but when one thinks of what happened to those who we are close to and in the daily life of the people of Abruzzo, everything else takes on a different perspective. I hope that having the ‘Abruzzo nel cuore’ (Abruzzo in our hearts) message on the cars, as requested by President Montezemolo, might help to make these people feel less alone. As for the track, I can say our fight for the championship is ever more compromised. Here we are also running without KERS and as a result, we are losing even more performance, in addition to not having as much aerodynamic downforce as the best cars. We must try and push as hard as possible on the development of the car, but we know it will be very hard to catch up. The only recipe for getting out of this difficulty is to work.”
Lewis Hamilton, P1 - 1:37.334, 1st; P2 - 1:36.941, 13th
“The car instantly felt a bit better. I can feel more stability and downforce from the front. We’ve definitely made a step forward for this race. The car feels much stronger through the corners and I think we’ve got a very positive baseline for the rest of the weekend. My first run on the options felt quite consistent. The drop-off definitely feels manageable. This was a good day, although we still need to work on MP4-24’s medium- and high-speed balance.”
Kimi Raikkonen, P1 - 1:38.223, 11th; P2 - 1:37.054, 14th
“The balance of the car isn’t bad and one doesn’t feel the lack of KERS. The point is that we are too slow compared to the teams currently at the top of the order. We must try and improve the car: at the moment, we are not able to fight for the title. We must not give up the fight because, with the whole team working hard, we can get back into a winning position. It’s not an easy time, but our group is strong and we know what needs to be done to get out of this situation. The softer tyre seems to work better than it did in Australia.”
Robert Kubica, P1 - 1:38.463, 18th; P2 - 1:37.491, 17th
“We completed our standard Friday programme and tried to learn more about the nature of the track and to understand the tyre compounds. While the option tyres are quite fragile, it is difficult to make the prime tyre work. Additionally, this was the first time I was running KERS at a Grand Prix weekend. There were a lot of tests to do. Now we have to check and evaluate the data.”
Fernando Alonso, P1 - 1:38.089, 9th; P2 - 1:37.638, 19th
“Although we are at the bottom of the timesheets, I don’t think we should be too worried as we concentrated more on race configuration today. Tomorrow morning in the third free practice session we will be preparing for qualifying and so I think we can remain optimistic for the rest of the weekend. We need to try to reach Q3, as we did in Malaysia, and aim to score as many points as possible. I think overall today we struggled to find the right set-up, but even looking at the times, we still have high hopes for this weekend.”
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