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15 April 2011 Nick and Vitaly began
their Chinese quest today as free practice got
underway at the Shanghai International Circuit.
Alan Permane, Chief Engineer - Technical
programme notes
A fairly typical Friday session for us today –
running hard tyres in the first practice session,
and both hards and softs in the second, some
long running with both cars on high fuel.
Very unusual for Nick to have two incidents like
that, which put us back a bit but we’ll recover
from that tomorrow.
There was a little too much understeer on
Vitaly’s car in the morning and oversteer on
Nick’s car so we had some set-up work to do on
both cars and improved things throughout the day.
What we learned today:
Tyres are performing relatively well, somewhere
between the degradation of Melbourne and
Malaysia.
Track was dusty and dirty, particularly off line,
but we expect it to clear up over the weekend.
Nick Heidfeld, R31-01
Free practice 1: P5, 1:40.987, 5 laps
Free practice 2: P8, 1.38.805, 26 laps
Nick: “Today obviously wasn’t what we wanted,
after I spun off in the first session and then
again in the second which were both my fault. I
hope it’s a good omen because in Malaysia we
also didn’t have many laps on the Friday and
then we had a good result. Given that I only had
five laps in the first session, it was
surprising how fast I was, we were both in the
top 10. There’s still some more in the car but
the gap is a bit bigger than we would have hoped
for. As expected, we achieved quicker lap times
when using the softs over the hards, and it was
good that we managed to use both.”
Vitaly Petrov, R31-04
Free practice 1: P9, 1:41.231, 16 laps
Free practice 2: P9, 1.38.859, 31 laps
Vitaly: “We managed to run the whole way through
both sessions, and then we were able to work on
some directions for set-up so we’re quite happy
with that. I think we need to be happy with
today, of course not on the pace and the lap
time as we can be quite a bit quicker. What is
good is that we don’t have any mechanical
problems, we can still continue to work and push
hard. The option tyres were a big improvement,
as usual, with much more grip.” 16 April
2011 A dramatic qualifying session saw
Vitaly qualify in P10 and Nick in P16, after the
Russian’s car lost power and halted what could
have been a very strong session for the team.
• Vitaly’s car was halted when the air supply to
the engine was cut off, causing the engine to
lose power. At the moment we believe there is no
reason to change the engine.
• Both Nick and Vitaly used one set of hard and
soft tyres in Q1. Nick used two sets of softs in
Q2, while Vitaly used one set.
Vitaly Petrov, P10, R31-01, 1:35:149
“I am very disappointed with what happened after
having just completed a very fast lap which put
me in fourth position at the end of Q2. The car
lost power so I stopped on the side of the
track. The track was getting quicker and my
times were up from this morning, things were
going very well. Because of the power failure, I
couldn’t move off the track and so that was the
end of my qualifying. The positive thing is the
car was looking fast and I hope I can make up
some ground tomorrow from P10 on the grid.”
Nick Heidfeld, P16, R31-04, 1:36.611
“It’s quite frustrating to be starting from P16
because I don’t think it’s a fair reflection of
our pace. We were always going to do one run on
the soft tyres in Q2, but the red flag made the
last few minutes on Q2 very busy. You really
needed to be first in the queue at the end of
the pit lane because there was not much time to
get around and cross the line before the end of
the session. I managed to do one final lap, but
I was stuck in traffic and I couldn’t get a
clean lap. As I said, our race pace is
definitely better than our grid position, but
starting from P16 is not going to be easy. I
think it’s a track where you can overtake so
hopefully I can make a good start, like in the
previous two races, and fight for points.”
Alan Permane, Chief Engineer: “We know our car
is fast off the line…there’s no reason why we
can’t bring two cars home in the points”
Alan, first of all, what happened with Vitaly’s
car in Q2?
We are still investigating exactly what
happened. It’s clear that he lost power and the
engine died. We believe the air supply to the
engine was cut off. It couldn’t be restarted and
the car got stuck in gear, which is why he
stopped on the track.
Nick was an unfortunate victim of the red flag –
why was he running so late in the session?
Nick’s time from Q1 suggested that it might be
difficult for him to make it through to Q3.
That’s why we wanted to run right at the end of
Q2 to take advantage of the maximum track
evolution. As it happened, Vitaly’s car brought
out the red flags at exactly the wrong moment,
and Nick then got caught up in the traffic in
the busy rush at the end of Q2.
Nonetheless, the car has looked quite
competitive this weekend. That must give you
some encouragement for the race?
I think we can expect to see our pace being
relatively better in the race, even compared to
Vitaly’s good qualifying pace. We know our car
is fast off the line; we’ve got very good
straight-line speed and the R31 looks after its
tyres well. There’s no reason why we can’t bring
two cars home in the points.
What is the situation with tyres for the race?
Our poor qualifying performance leaves us with
more tyre options than we would normally have.
We’ve effectively saved an extra set of soft
tyres on each car, which are available for the
race. 17 April 2011 Vitaly scored
another couple of points as he finished P9 at
the Shanghai International Circuit, while
teammate Nick came home in P12.
• Both Vitaly and Nick ran two-stop strategies.
• Vitaly started on softs, took another set of
softs on lap 17, and switched to hards on lap 37
• Nick also started on softs, took more softs on
lap 18, then finally ran the hards from lap 30
Vitaly Petrov, P9, R31-01
“To be P9 and take two points for the team is
still good, given that we did not qualify in
high positions. However, we are still a bit
disappointed that we did not challenge higher up
the order and gain even more points. The
strategy was OK, but we must now see where we
can improve. We will analyse the data and see
what went wrong, and we will try to repeat the
results we had in Australia and Malaysia when we
reach Turkey.”
Nick Heidfeld, P12, R31-04
“I’m not happy with where I finished, even
though I started P16. The start was very poor,
but I went aggressive into the first corner and
made up a few places. After a few laps I started
having problems with the KERS and couldn’t use
the full power all the time, which made
overtaking and defending quite difficult. I
think our pace in the second stint on the soft
tyre was not too bad, but it was still hard to
attack the cars ahead of me. That’s why we made
an early stop for hard tyres in the hope that we
could get some clean air and jump the cars ahead
of me. Unfortunately Perez and Sutil stopped on
the same lap, and it meant I couldn’t really
show our pace in the final stint.”
Eric Boullier, Team Principal and Managing
Director
“Starting where we did, it was always going to
be difficult to repeat the results we have had
already this season. In the end, it turned out
to be quite a frustrating afternoon for us and
we didn’t really make the progress we expected
in the race. Part of the reason was that
overtaking was not as easy as we thought it
would be, even with the DRS. Also, we need to
review our strategy because it wasn’t easy to
make the calls today and it’s clear you need to
switch tyres at exactly the right moment. Still,
it’s good to pick up more points with Vitaly and
we now have three weeks to regroup before Turkey
to make sure we can be fighting closer to the
front.”
Alan Permane, Chief Race Engineer
“It was a tricky day for us, which wasn’t helped
by our poor qualifying yesterday, but ultimately
we struggled for pace and both drivers found it
quite difficult to overtake. Vitaly didn’t make
a great start and he was stuck in traffic during
his first stint. At that point we were thinking
about whether to do two or three stops, but when
he finally found some clean air his pace looked
reasonable and we decided it was best to do two
stops. However, he struggled for pace on the
soft tyres during his middle stint. As for Nick,
we chose to run the same tyre strategy as Vitaly,
but he struggled with KERS overheating problems,
which meant the system could only be used
intermittently and made it even more difficult
for him to come through the field.”
Ricardo Penteado, LRGP Engine Support Leader,
Renault Sport F1
“A long and hard race for the team, with battles
on every lap for both drivers – including the
last one! We can be pleased to be in the top ten
after the difficulties yesterday. Vitaly and
Nick gave it everything and both finished up on
their starting positions, with Vitaly taking
some more valuable points in 9th. Temperatures
were significantly higher than yesterday but the
R31-RS27 chassis-engine package performed well,
although we know that we are capable of
finishing higher than 9th and 12th.” |
