Force India
Nico Hulkenberg
“It was a good Friday - just what you want from a day like this. We had two dry sessions and collected some very useful tyre information with two long runs. The car feels ok, but there is still a lot that can be done to improve the balance overnight. It’s a good starting point. It’s still too early to know just how competitive we are, but it feels like we have the potential for a strong weekend.”
Sergio Perez
“A very hot day, but things went to plan and I feel positive. This afternoon I didn’t get a clear lap for my first run on the soft tyres so I feel there is more potential to come. We tried a few set-up adjustments that did not really work, but we’ve learned some things which will give us a better direction for tomorrow. We expect the weather to be slightly cooler over the weekend, but I still think the work we’ve done today is representative and we just need to adjust if the track temperatures drop. Overall I feel happy with what we’ve done today and we have a good idea of where we need to improve overnight.”
Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal
“As the forecast indicated, we had a very hot day with high temperatures, up to 50 degrees on track, in both FP1 and FP2. This allowed us to learn a lot about the set-up of the car and the performance of the tyres in these conditions. However, we are aware that cooler weather is expected for the rest of the weekend, with a realistic chance of rain, so we need to keep that in mind when looking at a qualifying and race set-up. Overall, it was a fairly standard Friday in which we were able to complete our programme with no issues. Both drivers were quite happy with the car by the time we got to the long runs at the end of the day, but there is still some work to do in regard to our low-fuel performance. It will be our focus tonight as we prepare for the weekend.”
