Spanish F1 Grand Prix 2013: Friday's Free Practice Report - Testing the new updates for the Silver Arrows

Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg completed the first two practice sessions for the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona today.

• A rain shower prior to P1 left the track damp for the session, with Nico and Lewis completing 40 laps between them

• The team focused on evaluating the new upgrade package along with the hard and medium Pirelli tyre compounds

• In the dry conditions this afternoon, Nico and Lewis completed 45 and 35 laps respectively, finishing in P7 and P6

Drivers ++ Car No. ++ Chassis No. ++ Practice One ++ Practice Two
Lewis Hamilton ++ 10 ++ F1 W04 / 04 ++ 19 laps, 1:26.374, P6 ++ 35 laps, 1:23.140, P6
Nico Rosberg ++ 9 ++ F1 W04 / 03 ++ 21 laps, 1:26.621, P9 ++ 45 laps, 1:23.398, P7

Weather - Damp morning, dry afternoon
Temperatures - Air: 17-20°C / Track: 18-35°C

Lewis Hamilton
“The team have done a great job to bring our upgrades here this weekend and whilst I could feel the impact immediately, it’s difficult to quantify how much of an improvement has been made at this early stage. After the first session this morning, I felt there was some good promise and the car was well-balanced but I was a little less happy in the different conditions this afternoon. We’ll keep working on it tonight and see if we can make tomorrow a little better.”

Nico Rosberg
“It seems that we are quick again on one lap but we need to focus very much on achieving a good race pace. There is still a lot work to do but in general I felt that we had a good test programme today and learned quite a lot. It’s difficult to manage the tyres in these conditions and we have seen a lot of graining today because of the lower temperatures.”

Ross Brawn
“We’ve been working hard on improving our long runs and there are some signs of improvement today but we need to have a good look at the data this evening before making any conclusions. The car seems to be quite good on low fuel as we know. Tyre degradation is going to be a key consideration over the weekend and we must remain focused to ensure that we get the best possible performance from the car in the race. That’s our priority.”

Toto Wolff
“A quite difficult day at the office for us today. The car seemed quick over a single lap but what matters for Sunday is how we perform on our long runs. They looked more difficult for both drivers today and we have plenty of work to do overnight to improve our pace for the weekend.”