Practice report

Not an easy day Sahara Force India at Sepang

Sahara Force India completed a solid day of practice in Sepang in preparation for Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix.

Nico Hulkenberg VJM07-04
FP1: 1:41.642 P8 19 laps
FP2: 1:40.691 P10 34 laps

Nico Hulkenberg, Sahara Force India F1 VJM07

Photo by: XPB Images

Nico: “I think we can be satisfied with what we learned today. We worked through the programme and there were no big issues on my side. Of course, the hot weather here means conditions are tough and we found that tyre management during the long run was quite challenging. It’s even more difficult this year because there is more wheelspin with these engines and the rear degradation is quite high. We collected the usual data for the tyres and the set-up, and I think there is still room for improvement. I need some more grip and we need to tweak the balance before final practice.”

Sergio Perez VJM07-02
FP1: No time P20 2 laps
FP2: 1:41.671 P16 25 laps

Sergio: “Not an easy day because I missed most of the morning session and that has limited my running on the hard compound. In the afternoon we tried to improve the car, as well as learning about the tyres, but I still feel we need to make a big step tonight to be ready for qualifying. The tyre performance gap between the hard and the medium compound is not that big, but we suffered with high degradation on both tyres.”

Otmar Szafnauer, Chief Operating Officer
“Apart from some lost track time for Sergio this morning, which resulted from a fuel system issue, our preparation for the Malaysian Grand Prix has gone largely to plan. We met our mileage target for the tyres and signed off the cooling solutions we have in place for this weekend. The long run performance looks competitive, although coping with the high tyre degradation will be critical come Sunday afternoon.”