Daniel, JEV Make Best Of Friday Weather

As STR's cheif engineer, Laurent Mekies noted, it was better for the squad's young drivers to have to deal with rain for the first time on Friday than during the race on Sunday. Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne soldiered on as best as they could during FP1 & 2, learning more about the car's handling characteristics in the wet along the way.  

Ricciardo would post an impressive 7th best time (1:28.908) in FP1, but slid back to 21st in FP2: Vergne would not be as fast, but more consistant over the sessions, notching the 19th best time in FP1 and 20th in FP2.

The Frenchman enjoyed his first ever GP Friday. "Being the first driver out on track this morning was something special, but after that it was time to get on with all the usual work with the engineers and you forget about that side of it. This morning, we did not manage to complete all our programme, partly because of the rain. That made life difficult, but you know, it was really good fun, as I’ve never driven on rain tyres, which meant I did almost everything you could do today, in terms of trying tyres. I also did a long run, which was useful in terms of learning the circuit and there are still plenty of little details where I need to improve. But overall, I would say it was a positive first day and what I must do tomorrow is push more.”

While acknowledging that condidtions were far from ideal, Mekies stated that he was pleased with the drivers' efforts and noted that; “Overall this was a good day for us, with everyone happy to be racing here again".