Force India Bahrain GP - Sakhir Friday practice report

Sahara Force India completed a busy morning practice session in Bahrain with Paul Di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg each completing 26 laps respectively. Both drivers used the soft and medium tyres during the session.

Nico Hulkenberg, Sahara Force India F1 with team mate Paul di Resta, Sahara Force India F1

Photo by: xpb.cc

For logistical reasons the team will run a rescheduled programme for the rest of the weekend, which will result in the team missing second practice to ensure the most competitive performance in FP3, qualifying and the race.

Paul Di Resta (VJM05/02)

FP1: P3 1:34.150 26 laps

Paul: “The track was very green and dusty to begin with, but we got on with the programme quickly and did the usual balance work, cooling checks and got a feel for both the medium and the soft tyres. The baseline set-up was not a long way off, but our focus for tomorrow is to improve our performance in the low-speed corners.”

Nico Hulkenberg, Sahara Force India F1

Photo by: xpb.cc

Nico Hulkenberg (VJM05/03)

FP1: P6 1:34.344 26 laps

Nico: “It was a different approach to FP1 today and we made sure we ran all three sets of tyres to get the data we need for the race. The session went okay and the car felt quite good out of the box, although there is still some fine-tuning to do in FP3.”

Jakob Andreasen, Chief Engineer

“A very busy morning programme with a lot to get through considering we haven’t raced in Bahrain for a couple of years. After the initial balance checks we looked at our brake and engine cooling solutions and dialled the cars into the circuit with some mechanical and aero set-up work. We have pretty much used up our tyre allocation this morning, which has given us all the data we need heading into tomorrow when we can hopefully deliver a strong qualifying performance.”