German GP: Friday team comment and reaction

By MF1 media
July 28 2006

Midland F1 Racing had a constructive Friday free practice at the Hockenheimring in Germany, despite battling technical challenges and wet weather. The driver team of Markus Winkelhock, Tiago Monteiro, and Christijan Albers were all able to complete their programmes...

...which included the assessment of several new aero components. This work will continue tomorrow, with the team expecting to run strongly in the all-important qualifying hour on Saturday.

Tiago Monteiro (POR)
Chassis: M16-03, Car #18
First Timed Session Classification: 17th, 1:20.575 (+4.226) 7 laps completed
Second Timed Session Classification: 23rd, 1:18.991 (+2.766) 11 laps completed
Quote: "It was a bit of a disappointing day, as we didn't get as much running as we would have liked. We were delayed in the second session by the rain, but also with some problems on the car we had to sort out. We had a lot planned for today, and it's a shame we weren't able to run through the whole programme. The positive thing is that we're not fighting with a hundred different problems; we're only struggling with one problem, which is understeer, so it's easier to deal with. And given the fact that we only ran on one set of tyres all day, the times aren't too bad. I would have like to have tried a few more things, but that's the way it is. At least we have a good idea of how to address the problem tomorrow, so hopefully we'll solve it in morning practice and have a good qualifying session."

Christijan Albers (NED)
Chassis: M16-02, Car #19
First Timed Session Classification: 16th, 1:20.132 (+3.783) 5 laps completed
Second Timed Session Classification: 22nd, 1:18.643 (+2.418) 11 laps completed
Quote: "It was a bad day for me, to be honest. My engine blew up in the morning, which limited my running and got me a ten-position grid penalty, so that's insult on top of injury. Then, in the afternoon, our session was shortened by rain and I was held up by traffic when I did finally go out. But hey, tomorrow is a new day. I'm thankful to have a lot of fans here supporting me and I will do my best to give them a good performance."

Markus Winkelhock (GER)
Chassis: M16-04, T-Car
First Timed Session Classification: 11th, 1:18.964 (+2.615) 27 laps completed
Second Timed Session Classification: 14th, 1:17.962 (+1.737) 20 laps completed
Quote: "It was good day, from my point of view. We lost a little bit of time at the beginning of the second session because the weather didn't suit the programme we had, but by the end of it I managed to test two sets of tyres, so it wasn't too bad. On the first set, I made a mistake - I missed a gear twice on one lap - so I lost a lot of time. But with the second set of tyres, I didn't have that problem, and I was able to drive quite a good lap. It's great that I was able to put in a good time - any time you can finish ahead of Alonso, it's OK! But you never know what kind of programmes the other teams are running. The most important thing is that I was able to help the team choose the correct tyres for qualifying tomorrow and the race, so I'm happy with the job I did today."

Johnny Herbert, Sporting Relations Manager: "It was one of those horrible sessions with poor weather at the beginning of it, so it reduced a little bit of the running and sort of greened up the track again. But I think Markus did a good job for us as he went through the tyre programme, and on the limited running he was able to give us a lot of feedback. Christijan and Tiago did a good job as well, just going through their respective programmes. Listening to them, they seem to have a good idea about what needs to be changed for tomorrow, so I think that ultimately, it was a positive day."

James Key, Technical Director: "We had a reasonably productive morning, I would say. Markus did a good job with the car, especially considering it's been some time since he'd last driven it. But he got back into the groove fairly quickly and continued to improve all morning. This afternoon was obviously complicated by the wet start, which kind of halved the time we had to get going and run through our intended programme. Christijan had his engine issue in the first session, so he only really got half a session today, which is a shame. But we ran quite a few new parts on the car and learned a bit about them, so we know what we're going to be able to carry through to tomorrow. We also have a good direction with respect to tyres, thanks to Markus' feedback. Another positive area is the main aero upgrades tested on the T-car last week and brought here seem to be fine and we're going to have them on both race cars tomorrow."

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