3
April 2009 - The Force India Formula One Team
today completed the opening day of practice
for the Malaysian Grand Prix at the Sepang International
Circuit some 60km from the country's capital, Kuala
Lumpur. Under increasingly cloudy skies, Giancarlo
Fisichella and Adrian Sutil recorded
times just over a second from the fastest lap of the
day, with Giancarlo 12th and 19th
in the morning and afternoon sessions respectively,
and Adrian 15th and 16th.
The
team completed short runs on the harder tyre in the
morning, but concentrated the majority of its programme
on the afternoon session, with its high ambient temperatures
and later time slot being more representative of the
expected conditions for Sunday's race, which will
start at 17:00hrs this year. Both drivers compared
the soft and hard tyre compounds available this weekend
over both long and short runs, fine-tuned the set-up
and reacclimatised to the tough physical pressures
associated with the heat and humidity of this event.
(L
to R): Adrian Sutil (GER) Force India F1 and Giancarlo
Fisichella (ITA) Force India F1 sign autographs for
the fans.
Formula One World Championship, Rd 2, Malaysian Grand
Prix, Practice Day, Sepang, Malaysia, Friday 3 April
2009.
The
only blip in the programme was an accident for Giancarlo
in the second practice. The Italian put a wheel on
the grass at turn 11 20 minutes from the end of the
session and went into the gravel trap and into the
barriers. His VJM02 sustained suspension damage in
the impact but will be repaired overnight in time
for tomorrow's final practice session and qualifying.
Adrian
Sutil (car 20)
'It was a good day today overall. We got through all
our work and had no problems with the car. We have
some work to do with the set up, it's still a bit
understeery in the high speed corners and we can still
make some improvements in this respect. The soft tyres
seem to work quite well, but the hard tyre at the
moment is really hard and never seems to come in.
Overall it was a pretty productive day to set us up
well for the weekend.'
