Friday: Dream Day for Grosjean, Petrov Aims for Q3
Romain Grosjean had the opportunity to get back behind the wheel of the R31 today at Interlagos, and the French driver thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this testing session. He even managed to outpace Bruno Senna, which could work in his favor for 2012. The Brazilian driver struggled with the balance of his car and hopes to do better tomorrow. Vitaly Petrov only drove for an hour and thirty minutes today, but the Russian driver is confident in his machine and hopes it will allow him to qualify in the top 10 tomorrow, even though the Interlagos circuit does not favor the Lotus Renault.
Bruno Senna – 14th and 12th
« It was an interesting day. The performance in the second session was much better than in the first session. Our times this afternoon were much more in line with those of the other teams than this morning. As for tomorrow, we will need to work on the car’s balance. It will be crucial to ensure a good qualification to give us a chance to perform well on Sunday. »
Vitaly Petrov – 11th (Free Practice 2)
The first practice session was interesting for me, and it was a good experience to be on the pit wall during the session. It allowed me to better understand what the engineers see and what they ask from a driver, so I will try to put that into practice in the future. In the second session, there were no mechanical issues, so I think my mechanics did a very good job repairing the car after the clutch problem this morning.
We know that this isn’t an easy track for our car as you can see from our times. It will be difficult tomorrow during qualifying, but we need to work as hard as possible to qualify for Q3 but it won’t be easy. Today, we faced difficulties with rear grip and experienced understeer, so we will focus on this area as it hinders us in terms of pace.
Romain Grosjean – 12th (Free Practice 1)
I was eagerly waiting to be able to get back in the car this morning, and the experience did not disappoint me. I loved every minute. It’s a track that I really enjoy; an old-school circuit, with lots of fans in the stands. We gathered interesting data from a technical standpoint, which helps the team for next year. I want to spend as much time as possible in the car, and I really love being behind the wheel – it’s a job I adore.
