Free Practice - Rd.3 Chinese Grand Prix
Chinese Grand Prix - Free Practice Round-Up
17.04.2009
Panasonic Toyota Racing today began preparations for the Chinese Grand Prix with a day of practice at the Shanghai International Circuit. The teams normally come to the city later in the season so conditions are cooler than usual here. Despite a sunny day, the air temperature ranged from 16-20°C and the track temperature from 26-34°C. Toyota drivers Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock both had full days of practice as they work towards Saturday and Sunday. The TF109s feature aerodynamic updates here and they collected useful data throughout both sessions. During the morning session, Jarno had a slow in-lap due to an electrical problem but it did not hamper his programme. In the afternoon both drivers sampled the softer of the two Bridgestone tyre compounds in preparation for qualifying and the race.
Jarno Trulli - Car 9, Chassis TF109-04
1st Practice: 6th, 1m 37.764s (+0.430s), 19 laps
2nd Practice: 6th, 1m 36.217s (+0.538s), 42 laps
"That was a busy Friday for me. This morning we had an electrical problem which cost us a bit of track time but we recovered to complete our programme of work on set-up and tyres. The track surface wasn't in fantastic condition this morning but it improved during the day. In general I'm still not happy with the car's balance and pace so I hope we can analyse the data tonight and aim for better tomorrow. Then we can target another strong result on Sunday."
Timo Glock - Car 10, Chassis TF109-05
1st Practice: 8th, 1m 37.894s (+0.560s), 21 laps
2nd Practice: 8th, 1m 36.548s (+0.869s), 40 laps
"So far things are going okay for us. The track was quite tricky this morning because there wasn't much grip. I was sliding around on the green track and had to find a way to get the car together. But over the course of the day we sorted out a lot in terms of the set-up. The second free practice session was better and the car felt more together. So we have more work to do to get the car in the right direction for tomorrow. But overall this has not been a bad start to the weekend."
Dieter Gass - Chief Engineer Race and Test
"We made it through our programme without major issues on the car so that was a solid start to the weekend. Jarno did have a slow in-lap this morning with an electrical problem but it didn't unduly affect our programme. That included a test of some new aerodynamic and suspension development parts which we completed successfully. The consistency of the tyres doesn't seem to be as much of a drama as we were expecting, so that is good news for the race on Sunday. The lap times seem to confirm our good form from the first two races so we are confident for the rest of the weekend."
- Free Practice 1
- Free Practice 2
- Free Practice 3
- Qualify
- Race
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
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| Pos. | No. | Driver | Team | Laps | Time | Gap | Kph | Best | Lap |
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| Not Classified DNF : Did Not Finish | |||||||||
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