Spanish GP - Free Practice

by - 7/12/2013 07:00:00 p.m.

Kimi Räikkönen went fourth fastest at the Circuit de Catalunya on the opening day of action for the Spanish Grand Prix. Kimi set a 1min 23.030secs lap on medium compound tyres in the dry afternoon session.

Technical programme notes:
- Both drivers ran with new front and rear wing specifications today. Romain also ran with the older specification front wing for evaluation purposes
- Kimi evaluated new rear suspension components
- Pirelli’s intermediate wet tyre (green) and hard compound dry tyre (orange) were used in the morning session, the hard and medium dry tyres (white) in the afternoon

What we learned today:
- The latest front and rear wings work well
- We are analysing the data from the new rear suspension components
- The E21 looks good on both dry tyre compounds
- Changes to improve the E21’s wet weather performance look to be beneficial

Kimi Räikkönen, E21-03
Free Practice 1: P8, 1:26.614, 21 laps
Free Practice 2: P4, 1:23.030, 32 laps
"For sure there are some things we have to improve with the car which is normal after the first day’s running"
Kimi: "It was a pretty normal Friday. We tried some things on the car, ran with some different tyres and we’ll have a look at all the data to see where we think we are. We finished the day not too far off the fastest time, so we can say that the day wasn’t a disaster, but for sure there are some things we have to improve with the car which is normal after the first day’s running."

"The morning rain was actually beneficial for us"
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: “We’re pretty happy with today’s performance. Romain’s position in the afternoon session is not representative of his potential as a cracked exhaust cost him performance for his run on the softer tyre, but other than that he’s comfortable with how his car is performing. Kimi was happy with the handling and balance of his car and that’s reflected in his pace. The morning rain was actually beneficial for us as it afforded an opportunity to run our latest developments aimed at addressing a relative lack of wet weather pace, and we’re happy with the progress made in this area.”

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