Germany Saturday Practise: Strong Until The End
By Alianora La Canta
July 11 2009
Force India were concentrating on qualifying set-up on Saturday at the Nurburgring. There were several shortish runs, including two runs on soft tyres (compared to most teams' single run). As a result, Adrian spent nearly the entire session in the top 10 before falling to 13th in the final five minutes. Giancarlo had a slightly slower session, possibly due to crashing yesterday.
10:00am - Adrian is the 3rd car out of the pits. Giancarlo is the 10th car on track. Given that both had interruptions to their programme yesterday, they will be keen to pile on the miles now.
10:02am - Both Force India drivers have pitted.
10:12am - Giancarlo takes to the track.
10:13am - Adrian also sets out to do a run.
10:16am - Giancarlo sets a time of 1:36.723, placing him second of two, partly due to cutting a chicane. Meanwhile, Adrian gets 1:35.140 and goes second, 0.592 seconds behind Massa.
10:17am - Giancarlo does a neater lap to do a 1:35.815, making him third of sixth.
10:18am - Adrian sets the fastest time of all, 1:33.974. Giancarlo goes sixth-fastest.
10:24am - Adrian pits (he's now 4th) while Giancarlo improves his time to get a 1:34.285. He is now 10th of 18.
10:26am - Giancarlo pits. The speed traps indicate that Adrian is the second-fastest and Giancarlo the seventh-fastest, so the straightline speed is there if the car can be got round the corners.
10:30am - The apex speeds place Giancarlo third-fastest and Adrian fourth-fastest. The statistics are there... ...and Adrian leaves the pits.
10:35am - Adrian sets all-green sectors to go 6th. A 1:33.005 is 1.040 seconds away from Lewis Hamilton's pace.
10:37am - Adrian improves to 1:32.908, gaining 5th and reducing the gap to Hamilton to 0.943 seconds.
10:39am - Giancarlo leaves the pits as Adrian climbs to 3rd with a 1:32.733. He is now only 0.768 behind Hamilton's pace.
10:42am - Adrian pits while Giancarlo sets a 1:32.204 to go third - 0.952 slower than Hamilton.
10:48am - Giancarlo sets a string of five strong laps on soft tyres before heading for the pits. He's fourth, with a 1:32.135. Adrian is currently 7th with a 1:32.733.
10:51am - Adrian goes out onto the track for a qualifying simulation. The apex speed ranking is updated - Giancarlo and Adrian are fifth and sixth.
10:54am - Adrian improves to a 1:32.235, placing him seventh. He's now 0.1 seconds slower than his team-mate. Giancarlo leaves the pits.
10:57am - Adrian jumped up to 8th, with a 1:32.104, 0.983 seconds behind Hamilton.
10:59am - Adrian has pitted. Giancarlo appears to have got stuck in traffic.
11:00am - Adrian finishes 13th, with a time of 1:32.104, 0.983 seconds behind Hamilton. Giancarlo is 15th, 0.131 seconds in arrears. Q2 for Force India looks likely - assuming the team's bad luck doesn't strike again. Q3, however, is unlikely. The top 5 results in the session were largely because Force India were trying more qualifying-orientated settings earlier in the session than their rivals.
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.
I'm glad my last sentence proved unnecessarily pessimistic, though
