Fri: Red Bull, STR, Honda, Force India

RED BULL RACING

Friday 1st August 2008

Red Bull, Toro Rosso, Honda and Force India all put in solid work during Friday's practice but failed to break into the top ten.

Red Bull
Mark Webber: We've got some work to do tonight to try and work out where we can find some more pace in the car. We had a good run in terms of laps completed, but it would always be nice to be a bit quicker. We'll be back tomorrow and will do our best."

David Coulthard: A normal Friday for us today, making our tyre comparisons and getting used to the conditions. I think it's going to be very tight again in the mid-group, but we'll see how tomorrow goes."

Toro Rosso
Sebastien Bourdais: Not too bad today. This morning was the first time I have driven here since the track configuration was changed, so I was finding out what it's like in a Formula 1 car. That went okay. This afternoon it was the usual programme of evaluating the tyres with different fuel loads. The track rubbered in quite a lot towards the end and as I did low fuel runs earlier in the session, this did not show in our later lap times. I was struggling a bit on the Option, which I had expected. As this track changes a lot, if you don't have a major problem with the car, it's best to leave it alone and see what happens on the second day. Otherwise, you make changes to the car which are not appropriate for the Saturday conditions. You have to be patient."

Sebastian Vettel: I had hydraulic problems in both sessions. A shame because I lost a lot of track time and Friday's work is very important. I hardly ran at all and therefore we are lacking information which will be a handicap for the rest of the weekend. Obviously, this means the data from the other car will be twice as important as usual. I will try and learn from Sebastien, but relying on your team-mate is never as good as finding your own way around the track. Hopefully I can catch up a bit tomorrow morning."

Honda
Jenson Button: Overall we had a good day today which enabled us to further understand the new rear suspension that we will be racing for the first time this weekend. We made some positive changes after the morning session to improve the car as I was not happy with the balance when we had very low grip at both ends. The changes ensured that the car was a lot more responsive this afternoon and an improvement over how it has felt for much of this season. Our long run pace is looking okay but we have further work to do over one lap as the balance is not quite there yet."

Rubens Barrichello: It has been a challenging day today, which we expected as we continue the set-up work with our revised rear suspension and new aero parts. Once the track had improved this morning, we worked on getting the right balance on the car and conditioning the tyres. Unfortunately we struggled with understeer and we need to look at the data closely this evening to confirm our direction before qualifying as the lack of overtaking opportunities here makes it important to get a good grid slot."

Force India
Giancarlo Fisichella: The upshift is better with the new gearbox and obviously a good step forward, but unfortunately for us we are not going to use it tomorrow and Sunday. We are struggling with the grip level at the moment as there is a lot of inconsistency and the balance is not quite there. Over the day the track conditions did improve a lot and the last 10 to 15 minutes of the second session were much better. Let's see for tomorrow and how it improves again as we use it more."

Adrian Sutil: Quite a good day today, the gearbox did a good job and we didn't have any issues at all. The car balance was still difficult as the track is not yet at its best so it was hard to find a good set-up. On my last run I had some traffic and couldn't really get the maximum out of it but I have a good feeling all the same. I think we are on the right track and the car is behaving well with no problems. I hope we can translate this into a good performance tomorrow in qualifying."