Slippery
05 | 09 | 08
A competitive showing from Scuderia Toro Rosso in the first three hours of free practice, with drizzly rain making the track extremely slippery for much of the afternoon session.
o both Sebs can be congratulated on keeping their cars on the island, unlike some others, on their way to winding up seventh (Vettel) and thirteenth (Bourdais) at the end of the day, having been seventh and eighth, but in the reverse order in the morning.
Double world champion Fernando Alonso topped the time sheet at the end of the day with a lap in 1:48.454 – yes it’s a long lap here. Second was the Ferrari of Felipe Massa, followed by the McLaren duo of Heikki Kovalainen and series leader Lewis Hamilton. Kimi Raikkonen was fifth and Nico Rosberg was sixth.
Sebastian Vettel (STR3-03)
“It was an interesting day and as expected, the weather made for some pretty strange conditions. Especially in the afternoon, it was important that we got some dry laps, to get another look at how the car was performing, having made some changes to it, as I was not completely happy with it in the morning. The afternoon showed it was much better. I thought it was cool to drive in these conditions as you have no margin for error: 10 centimetres the wrong way and you can crash. You have to be very precise and it demands very accurate driving. When you push, you start to feel your balls in your pants! It was interesting and I like it.”
First Practice Session
Best lap 1.48.958, pos. 8th, 24 laps
Second Practice Session
Best lap 1.49.427, pos. 7th, 29 laps
Sébastien Bourdais (STR3-04)
“This is the most beautiful track, but the conditions are often a pain in the arse and with the dry tyres in the drizzle we had this afternoon, if you touched the white line you would crash. So I didn’t take any risks, especially as you don’t learn much in these conditions. The morning session was quite good and now we just have to find a solution to the fact I am locking the rears. Apart from that, we have found a reasonable balance and I feel happy with that as I think we were quite competitive this morning and in general, we look in good shape.”
First Practice Session
Best lap 1.48.557, pos. 7th, 31 laps
Second Practice Session
Best lap 1.49.948, pos. 13th, 20 laps