29 July: Hungarian Grand Prix - Friday Practice
Report - Jordan Grand
Prix
Jordan Grand Prix drivers launched into the opening day of the Hungarian Grand Prix, which celebrates its 20th
birthday this year, and made steady progress during Friday’s two one-hour sessions in very hot weather conditions. Nicolas Kiesa
completed the biggest number of laps in the first session (19) but experienced a spin at the end, as many other drivers did, due to
the dirty and dusty surface of the track. The three drivers spent time adjusting their cars and evaluating different types of
Bridgestone tyres. The team is relatively satisfied with their Friday technical programme and looks forward to making further
progress tomorrow.
TEAM QUOTES ON THE HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX FRIDAY FREE PRACTICE SESSIONS
NARAIN KARTHIKEYAN “The
track here in Hungary is quite difficult to learn for newcomers, as you have a lot of corners, chicanes and bumps. Therefore, you
have to do as many laps as possible and this is what I have tried to do. I will sleep on it tonight and see how I can drive
tomorrow. I will also have to sort out some handling issues for tomorrow but I am pretty confident.”
TIAGO MONTEIRO “As
we expected it, it will be a very difficult weekend because the track is very technical and also because of the heat. It is hard for
the car, the engine, the tyres and all of us. This morning the circuit was so dirty, I could not say anything about the car. I also
had a few small technical issues, which prevented me from doing as much running as I wished. However, we managed to do everything we
wanted in the afternoon session. It is not very easy to find the right set- up here as there are so many different corners but we
have collected a lot of data that we need to analyse now.”
NICOLAS KIESA “I was very encouraged at the end of
the second session as I was quite close to Narain. It is not an easy task, as I haven’t driven for a year and a half in Formula
One. It feels very fast and I need to adapt not only to a F1 car but also to a completely new team crew and procedures. We have had
a pretty good session and I am confident about our tyre choice. If I were a race driver, I would know which Bridgestone tyre set to
choose. I know tyres play an important role here, so I will try to help the team in their choice.”
ADRIAN BURGESS
SPORTING DIRECTOR “Hungary being what it is, temperatures have been very high today. The track surface was very dirty and dusty
this morning, which limited our running. We had a small problem with Tiago in the first session, which was solved for the afternoon.
The drivers have also gained more confidence. Narain has never driven here and he learnt the layout very quickly. All of them have
done a good job and now we have to make the right choices for tomorrow’s qualifying and Sunday’s race.”
