Saturday: HRT gets closer to Marussia
HRT ends this session with the feeling of having made further progress, with Marussia team in their sights. Pedro de la Rosa even manages the performance of positioning himself between the two Russian cars, while Narain Karthikeyan is relatively satisfied despite a car that has scarcely been adjusted.
Pedro de la Rosa – 23rd and 22nd [21st on the grid]
« I’m very happy to be honest. Not long ago, we didn’t qualify in Australia, so when I saw the times we achieved, I was pleased. For us, it’s a step forward and, honestly, on a complicated circuit for us, we didn’t expect to be ahead of one of the Maruassia, so it’s satisfying. Tire degradation is significant and tomorrow, I will have to find the right compromise in the first sector to make the tires last long enough and have grip. We know there will be three or four pit stops in the race, and we will continue to fight and do our best. »
Narain Karhtikeyan – 24th and 24th
Yesterday was quite tough for me. We had a difficult morning, but we saw some late improvements. Today, we made some good progress and in qualifying, the car was quite decent. In the second sector, I locked up the wheels in turn 12, which cost me some time. The incredible thing is that we did practically nothing to the car but we are quite close to the group in front of us, and that is very positive. We found a lot of time between yesterday and today, so we can definitely say we’ve shown real progression. Tomorrow is another day, and the race will be quite difficult due to massive tire degradation, but what is certain is that we will approach it with great confidence.
