10 July 2011

Lotus Renautl GP: British Formula One Grand Prix 2011

Friday 8 July 2011

FP 1

Nick Heidfeld, R31-04 Free Practice 1:
P16, 1:48.941, 20 laps

Vitaly Petrov, R31-05 Free Practice 1:
P17, 1:49.603, 15 laps

Nick Heidfeld led the way for Lotus Renault GP in at a mixed weather conditions wet Silverstone for the first practice session of the British Grand Prix.

Using chassis R31-04, Nick set the sixteenth fastest time of the session using Pirelli’s blue marked intermediate tyres with a lap of 1min 48.941secs.

Vitaly was just below Nick on the timing monitors with the seventeenth fastest time in the session, also using the intermediate tyres, using chassis R31-05.

The rear wings on both cars were changed during the course of the 90 minute session – Vitaly’s after his installation lap, and Nick’s in the latter part of practice.

Fastest today was Red Bull Racing’s Mark Webber with a time of 1m 46.603s.

The wet conditions meant there was a variety of tyres used, with both LRGP drivers starting on the full wet before using the intermediate for the majority of the session. There were dry tyres used elsewhere in the field.

FP 2

Vitaly Petrov, R31-05 Free Practice 2:
P11, 1:52.198, 9 laps

Nick Heidfeld, R31-04 Free Practice 2:
P16, 1:54.023, 8 laps

The English weather was ever-present this afternoon, as Vitaly and Nick only managed to total 17 laps between them.

In a washed out second practice session at Silverstone, both drivers had to wait until 14.06 (66 minutes into the session) before they got out on track to test the extreme wet Pirelli tyres.

Vitaly managed to post the best time of the two drivers, with a 1min 55.874secs. Nick, meanwhile, clocked in with a 1min 56.848secs before the drying weather allowed the team to contemplate the use of the inters.

It was on the intermediate tyres that Vitaly secured his P11 with a timed lap of 1min 52.198secs. His counterpart, Nick, meanwhile posted a 1min 54.848secs, allowing him to clinch P16.

It was Ferrari’s Felipe (Massa) who finished ahead of the field with a 1min 49.967secs lap, ahead of Nico (Rosberg) in second and Sauber’s Kamui (Kobayashi) in third.

Saturday 9 July 2011

FP 3

Vitaly Petrov, R31-05
P15, 1:34.042, 22 laps

Nick Heidfeld, R31-04
P18, 1:34.822, 21 laps

Nick Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov completed their preparations for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in a predominantly dry third session of free practice ahead of this afternoon’s hour of qualifying.

Both drivers ran with the hard and soft compound Pirelli tyres during the course of the hour session with Vitaly ending the session having done a best lap of 1min 34.402s, and Nick posting a 1min 34.822s.

The windy weather blew over a couple of light showers, however only dry tyres were used in contrast to yesterday’s very wet weather.

Sebastian Vettel topped the times with a 1m 31.401s to head Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber.

Qualifying

Vitaly Petrov, R31-05
Qualifying: P14, 1:32.734, 14 laps

Nick Heidfeld, R31-04
Qualifying: P16, 1:33.805, 15 laps

It was a disappointing qualifying session for Lotus Renault GP, with both drivers unable to qualify inside the top ten during difficult conditions again today at Silverstone.

Rain showers on certain parts of the track made judging the grip levels available a tough challenge for both drivers. Vitaly set the better time with a 1min 32.734secs to Nick’s 1min 33.805secs.

Both drivers set their best times using Pirelli’s yellow-marked soft compound P-Zero tyre. By not going through to the final qualifying session, both drivers have an extra unused set of soft tyres for tomorrow’s race.

Mark Webber set pole position with a time of 1min 30.399secs and will be joined on tomorrow’s front row by his team-mate Sebastian Vettel.

Sunday, 11 July 2011

Nick, 16th to 8th - not a bad result?
NH: We saw on Saturday that this would be a tough weekend but as usual I said ‘never give up.’ I had a good start, but the first few corners were incredibly tight and I was happy to get through them without any damage to the car.

You enjoy the challenge of working your way through the grid, don’t you?
NH: Yes, I do actually. Obviously I would like to qualify much higher to begin with - and we should be qualifying much higher - but it is an exciting challenge to work your way through the order like I did today.

Strategically, the race went well?
NH: The big question for the race was when to change from the intermediates to the slicks and we were one of the first to do this. It was a good call, however we didn’t get as much of an advantage as you can sometimes get from timing your stop well. After that it was an interesting race for me as I had to look after my tyres and at the same time I had to attack and also defend at different times, particularly with Michael and Adrian. Finding the balance between attacking, fighting and not killing the tyres was not only very satisfying, but it also worked out well for us with four valuable points.”