2012 KOREAN GRAND PRIX – FRIDAY 12/10/2012
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| Ricciardo in Korea Courtesy of Toro Rosso/Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images |
Jean-Eric Vergne (STR7-03)
First Practice Session
Best lap: 1:42. 021, pos. 17th, 25 laps
Second Practice Session
Best lap: 1:40.789, pos. 16th, 31 laps
“Today was a sort of anniversary for me, as it was in Korea that I started driving the Friday morning
sessions for Toro Rosso and today, that went much better than a year ago, when I only completed 5
laps in very heavy rain. I can’t say I thought about it much, as there was plenty of work to do today. It’s
a nice track and I felt quite comfortable here. During the day, we worked hard on finding the right
balance of the car, between oversteer and understeer and I believe we made some progress over the
course of the three hours. But there is more to come, so we must work hard overnight to see how we
can move forward for the rest of the weekend.”
Daniel Ricciardo (STR7-04)
First Practice Session
Best lap 1:41.596, pos. 16th, 23 laps
Second Practice Session
Best lap: 1:40.997, pos. 17th, 32 laps
“We made progress from the morning to the afternoon session and when I started FP2 on the Soft
tyre I felt the balance of the car had improved. However, on the Supersoft, I encountered traffic on my
first two laps and by the time I had a clear run on the third one, the tyres were no longer at their best. I
did the long run on the Option tyre and even if the pace was not what we wanted, it was not too far off,
so all things considered the most positive factor is that we have an idea how to move forward for
tomorrow and improve in time for qualifying.”
Laurent Mekies (Chief Engineer): “Overall, this Friday went smoothly for us, as we completed all
our programme with no real issues. This track is quite difficult to assess, as it sees very little use over
the year and therefore the grip level increases significantly as the track gets cleaner and evolves
when more rubber is put down. It is a very interesting track with a mix of corner types. Daniel and
Jean-Eric also increased their performance level as the day progressed and we have all the elements
we need to improve the car tomorrow. We are not yet where we want to be in terms of car balance,
but today we collected plenty of data to work on. The only slight inconvenience is that Daniel did not
get a clean lap on his Option run, when he encountered a lot of traffic.”
