Friday: the main driver reactions

Here are the reactions of the main figures from this Friday:

**Sébastien Buemi – 17th and ‘No time’**

There’s not much to say about what happened during the first free practice. I braked, the wheels went off, and that’s all. Physically, I’m fine. But I have to say I’m extremely disappointed to find that once again, through no fault of my own, I wasn’t able to drive for three hours on the track. I’ll have to catch up on Saturday morning and we’ll rely on Jaime’s data to take the right direction.

Sebastian Vettel – 5th and 5th: « It was good, we didn’t have any major problems and the car worked very well. We completed a lot of laps and it was a very good day. Everyone seems very close, the Mercedes looks competitive, as well as the McLaren and the Ferrari. Tomorrow, it will be tight, but we’ll see. I had a good race here in 2007 when I finished fourth for Toro Rosso, then last year with the victory. So there are a lot of emotions and memories attached to this place. »

Nico Rosberg – 2nd and 2nd: « We made good progress on the setup throughout the day and tried new directions that seemed to work well. I was losing a bit of balance with too much oversteer in the late afternoon, so we need to look into the reasons. The long runs were very good on my side, and with the work that Michael did, we should be in a good position for our tire evaluations. The model seems quite similar to Malaysia in terms of pace compared to other teams, but we need to wait and see how it works tomorrow. »

Michael Schumacher – 4th and 4th: Today’s practice sessions went better than I expected. The track was pretty much okay, and it seems we’ve made a small step forward. We’ve made some improvements here, including the new rear wing, which helped. I’m very confident for the rest of the weekend, even though the overall standings won’t change much from the first three races. I was a bit unlucky this morning because I suffered a puncture on my left rear tire. We had to use one of the afternoon’s sets. That meant I only had three new tires during the second session, but it went well in the end.

Lewis Hamilton – 3rd and 1st: We are at the top of the time sheet in each session, but I don’t think McLaren is the favorite for this race so far. The car is performing well, but our pace seems quite similar to some of the other cars on the long runs. Everyone talks about our straight-line advantage, but it’s not true. Other cars have the same speed as us at the end of the straight. We are a bit quicker than some teams, but they are also capable of having more downforce. It’s about getting a good balance and we believe we have it. We continue with the good feelings we had in Malaysia, but we have made some other changes. I come out of this day with a positive feeling. Now we will keep a cool head and focus on securing a favorable spot in qualifying.

Jenson Button – 1st and 3rd: « Today was a good day. This afternoon was a bit frustrating: With my new set of tires, I got caught in traffic. Still, the work we did and the direction we took were positive. There’s a bit more we need to do, but we’re getting almost the maximum out of the car, especially on the long runs. We’re going in the right direction. There are a few little things we can still fine-tune this evening, but I think we came here with a pretty good car from the first laps. Of course, some teams were quick to react. Maybe we’re not on their pace, but we have tonight to make further improvements to the car. »

Fernando Alonso – 24th and 10th: « It is clear that I am not happy about having an engine failure, but I am not worried about that. The engine I had this morning was the one we changed after the Bahrain qualifying. We knew that, sooner or later, it could break. It happened today, but it will not have much effect on our engine management plan. We also conducted various tests of new aerodynamic components, such as the rear wing. It is pointless to look at the timesheet today, as each team follows its own work program, making it impossible to compare lap times. We stuck to our plans and are very happy with what we achieved. I think we will be competitive on this track. »