Scuderia
Toro Rosso drivers' Sebastien Buemi and Jaime
Alguersuari showed little turn of competitive speed in
the two free practice sessions at Suzuka today as they
looked to get to grips with
the demanding Japanese race track in the Ferrari V8-powered STR5.
Sebastien Buemi
(STR5-02)
“I had an impressive
spin at a high speed corner, but apart from that there
were no technical problems. I managed to do quite a good
lap time on the Option tyres and I feel I have a clear
picture of what the car is doing. But we need to work
hard now with the engineers to improve the car, although
tomorrow will be a different picture if it rains. We do
not appear to be as competitive as we were in Singapore
and Monza and it is difficult to say exactly why. It is
hard to tell how much we can improve, but the situation
is still open for us to increase our performance level.”
First Practice
Session - Best lap 1.34.991, pos. 17th, 26 laps; Second
Practice Session - Best lap 1.34.005, pos. 16th, 32 laps
Jaime Alguersuari
(STR5-01)
“This morning, I tested various new components which
made the session more complicated than usual, as I found
the car quite difficult to drive. I made a couple of
mistakes and there were times when I found it hard to
keep the car on track. This afternoon went much better,
even if we lack a bit of speed compared to Singapore. We
can analyse the data tonight and improve for tomorrow
and I would be happy if it is wet for qualifying, as I
think we can be more competitive in the rain than in the
dry.”
First Practice
Session - Best lap 1.35.684, pos. 18th, 22 laps; Second
Practice Session - Best lap 1.34.055, pos. 17th, 37 laps
Laurent Mekies
(Chief Engineer)
“It was a trouble-free
day for us and we evaluated several different set-up
options across both our cars. However, we still have a
lot of work to do tonight to try and improve our
performance and to get the car as well adapted as
possible to the layout of this track. Suzuka presents a
real challenge for engineers as well as drivers, which
makes it very enjoyable. Life will be further
complicated by the fact the forecast is for a wet
qualifying and a dry race, so it seems we are set for a
fun weekend!”
