Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona
Friday, 11th of May 2012
Weather: Sunny – Air 30ºC, Track 45ºC

10.00-11.30 FORMULA 1 PRACTICE SESSION 1
Pedro de la Rosa F112-02 #22 23rd (19 laps) 1:29.107
Dani Clos F112-03 #23 24th (19 laps) 1:31.618

14.00-15.30 FORMULA 1 PRACTICE SESSION 2
Pedro de la Rosa F112-02 #22 23rd (26 laps )1:28.235
Narain Karthikeyan F112-03 #23 24th (2 laps)

The time has finally come and the highly anticipated Spanish Grand Prix finally got underway today with the first free practice sessions at the Circuit de Catalunya (4.655 km). The day started with Dani Clos lining up alongside Pedro de la Rosa, making it a historic moment for the team and Spanish motorsport as a whole. The Spanish duo were able to try out the aerodynamic upgrades and compare data until Clos’ car came to a halt as a result of an electrical issue towards the end of the session.

The team worked hard at midday to solve the problem and get Narain Karthikeyan out on the track on time for the second session. It wasn’t to be but the team continued to fight against the clock and, in the end, the Indian driver was able to get on the track with half an hour to go in the session. But the car said enough was enough immediately and Karthikeyan wasn’t even able to finish two laps. On his behalf, de la Rosa completed a total of 26 laps comparing the two aerodynamic options with the two tyre options.

“I’m happy to have got into the car for the first time today, albeit for a short first encounter. The feeling I had when I left the pits and saw the Spanish crowd, whilst driving for a Spanish team alongside Pedro, was unbelievable. It was my first time in the new car and I wasn’t 100% comfortable since the car is built for Narain, so I had to adapt. We were able to carry out some aerodynamic work and try out some different things on the car so I’m pleased to have completed my job for the team”.

Pedro de la Rosa: “Today was the day to try out the aero package we’ve brought to Barcelona, so we completed various short stints to see how the car behaved with the changes. It was interesting because the car has effectively taken a step forwards, but we need an even bigger step, especially at such a tough circuit as this one where there are many quick turns and where you need to improve the balance of the car. There’s still plenty to do and a lot of data to analyze to have a better understanding of how to get the most out of these upgrades”.

Narain Karthikeyan: “I’m disappointed to have not got any laps under my belt today; it’s certainly not how I was aiming to start my weekend in Barcelona. Tomorrow will be an uphill struggle as we’ve only got one hour in the morning to get the car ready for qualifying in the afternoon, so we’re really going to have to get our heads down and work hard. Hopefully we can make up for the time lost today and turn things around tomorrow”.

Luis Pérez-Sala, Team Principal: “Today was a day of mixed feelings. On one hand it was very nice to see Dani make his debut but on the other hand we suffered a lot of electrical issues on Narain’s car. It’s a new chassis and there’s a lot of work to do with any new car so it’s not that strange for things to not work out first time round. It looks like the upgrades we’ve brought have worked well, which makes us optimistic for the future. Now we have to fix our immediate problems and work so that the weekend turns out the best way possible”.

A typically hot, humid and thundery weekend is forecast for the Malaysian grand prix.
New championship leader Jenson Button travels to Kuala Lumpur eyeing a weather forecast of possible rain for all three days of track action.

And as ever in tropical Malaysia, the highest chance of rain is always in the late afternoon.

“Bernie (Ecclestone) loves a late start,” smiled Red Bull’s Mark Webber, “and, once again, the race has a late kick-off.”

Indeed, qualifying and the race are not scheduled until 4pm local in Malaysia, ensuring a more civil early morning wake-up for F1′s bulk live audience in Europe.

“Late afternoon is usually when the rain comes in Malaysia, and when it comes you know about it,” said Australian Webber. “It’s something to be wary of.”

Even more nervous about the rain forecasts will be HRT.

After sitting out almost the entire winter whilst rebuilding the struggling Spanish team following Colin Kolles’ departure, Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan failed to qualify in Melbourne.

“In Australia we were only able to complete seven timed laps so I need to get more track time, get to know the car better and improve the setup,” said de la Rosa.

 Rumours are swirling in the Melbourne paddock that Red Bull and Lotus are preparing to lodge a post-qualifying protest.
“I’ve heard something like that,” confirmed Mercedes’ motor sport director Norbert Haug to German Sky television.

They are reportedly unhappy with the new ‘F-duct’ solutions seen on the W03 car.

British television Sky confirmed that team boss Eric Boullier has confirmed that Lotus will protest the outcome of Saturday afternoon’s qualifying result.

“The FIA has its opinion and so do we,” Haug added.

“I remember the noise made about the double diffuser; a noise, incidentally, that came from the same place,” said the German.

 Romain Grosjean will be happy if this week’s weather forecast for Melbourne proves right.
Although Wednesday will be warm and sunny in the Victorian capital, the clouds will begin to gather on Thursday, when the F1 circus congregates in the nearby Albert Park paddock for media and scrutineering activities.

Then, when practice signals the official start of the 2012 season on Friday afternoon, rain and isolated thunderstorms are predicted.

And isolated showers are forecast for the qualifying and race days.

Lotus driver Romain Grosjean has not tested his new E20 mount on a wet track, and the last time he saw rain from the cockpit of any F1 car was in Brazil 2009.

“It feels like a long time ago!” the Frenchman confirmed.

“I’m ready if the (Melbourne) track is more slippery, and I’ll try to make the best of it.

“I like racing in the wet, so maybe it will be a bit of an advantage for me,” added the reigning GP2 champion.

Sunday will be his eighth career grand prix, following 7 races with the Enstone based team – then known as Renault – in 2009.

 Red Bull is considering taking the ‘old’ version of its new car to Melbourne for the 2012 season opener.
That is the claim of Germany’s authoritative Auto Motor und Sport magazine, after the radically updated model made a troubled debut late last week as the pre-season test period ended.

Rivals and pundits believe the reigning champions are still leading the field, but the latest Barcelona-spec car – featuring a significantly different exhaust layout – did not complete many laps.

Moreover, it also did not appear fast.

“When I watched Webber’s long run on Saturday afternoon,” said an engineer for a rival team, “it was nothing special — not the laptimes nor the tyre wear.”

Also unconvinced are the drivers, with Mark Webber saying the new car did not feel “massively different” to the earlier launch-version RB8.

Sebastian Vettel, meanwhile, was dead last after just 23 laps on Sunday, and is quoted as saying: “It wouldn’t be fair for me to judge the upgrades, so we have to rely on the data collected by Mark.”

Another rival engineer said there is visual evidence that the exhaust gases on the revised layout “are not going where they (Red Bull) want them to go”.

All the hard work has finally paid off today as the F112, the car with which HRT Formula 1 Team will compete this season, completed its first laps at the Circuit de Catalunya, in Barcelona.

Since the car passed the last crash test and was homologated, the team has carried out work shifts to cover 24 hours a day to make sure it could make it, for the first time in its history, to the first Grand Prix of the season having run previously.

The car was able to run after the team took advantage of one of the filming days available during the season.

The car made it to the circuit from Munich, Germany, just after one in the afternoon and the mechanics and engineers got straight down to business, working on relevant adjustments. It was a combined team effort, working against the clock, which saw its rewards four hours later when Narain Karthikeyan led the car out onto the track. Pedro de la Rosa, Dani Clos and Tonio Liuzzi were also present, as were Carlos Gracia, President of the Spanish Motorsports Federation and Salvador Servià, General Director of the Circuit de Catalunya.

The tests were carried out without any setbacks and the car carried out over ten laps. The team was able to check that the car functioned properly both from a mechanical and aerodynamic point of view as from a systems standpoint.

The team will prepare the necessary material in the upcoming days and head down under for the first Grand Prix of the season which will take place at Melbourne, Australia, in just two weeks.

Narain Karthikeyan: “Today was a shakedown of the F112 and I have had the honour to be the first driver to test it. The first impressions are quite good; it’s definitely a step up from last year. We couldn’t do any set-up work or stuff like that but everything seems to be working fine and there are no major problems so we can look forward to the season now. Everyone has worked hard and the new team management has put everything together in a very short period of time. They’ve done a proper job with the car and I’m sure that it’s a big step forward from last year, so hopefully we can take the competition to the teams we were fighting last year”.

Pedro de la Rosa: “Today has been a very special day because the car saw the light for the first time; Narain did some installation laps and then various times laps without any issues. This is very important, it might not seem like it, but any sort of mileage before Australia is vital to see that the car is in good conditions. From here it is our job to try and improve it and make it progress”.

Luis Péres-Sala, Team Principal: “I’m very satisfied today as it is a very important day for us because we were able to test some things out with the new car during this filming day. I’m very proud of each and every member of this team because everyone has contributed their little bit for this to be possible. Now we have to focus on Australia because we still have a lot ahead”.

Felipe Massa on Thursday got his 2011 campaign off to a fiery start.
With only a chilly shakedown at Fiorano behind him, the Brazilian was a few laps into his proper test debut in the new F150 at Valencia when oil began to leak onto the exhausts.

Massa stopped at the side of the track but a fire broke out.

“It is unlikely that the car will be back on track much before 3 in the afternoon,” said the Italian team after assessing the damage.

Before completing the first two of the three test days in Spain, Fernando Alonso had been working on adjusting the F150′s setup to the difficult new Pirelli tyres.

“Felipe must now continue this work,” the Spaniard had stridently told his country’s reporters at Valencia late on Wednesday.

Late on Thursday afternoon at Interlagos, heavy rain started to fall.

The weather could be a precursor to a wet weekend at the Brazilian circuit, which a year ago hosted a famously drenched qualifying session.

The forecast for Friday is for a mainly fine day, with the chance of showers increasing later on and overnight.

Saturday could be showery and the outlook for Sunday is for better weather, but the conditions in Sao Paulo are often unpredictable — Thursday, for example, was expected to remain dry.

“It’s likely we will have some wet running this weekend,” said Renault driver Robert Kubica.

Peter Sauber has refused to comment on reports Pedro de la Rosa will not return to the wheel of his car for the rest of the 2010 season.

The authoritative Blick newspaper, well-connected with the Hinwil based team’s 66-year-old founder and boss, said Nick Heidfeld will be driving the sister C29 alongside Kamui Kobayashi in Singapore in two weeks and beyond.

La Nueva Espana said that after Spaniard de la Rosa’s post-race media rounds in the Monza paddock on late Sunday afternoon, the 39-year-old was called for a meeting with the team’s management.

The report said the driver left the circuit immediately afterwards “with a scowl” and began his road journey back to his home in Zurich.

“He did not answer his phone,” said the writer.

Peter Sauber also refused to comment: “I am not talking about my drivers,” he said.

After not appearing in the Spa paddock two weeks ago, Heidfeld was inconspicuously present at Monza over the race weekend.

The report at lne.es said sources have confirmed that it is “99 per cent” certain the 33-year-old German will be racing in de la Rosa’s place in Singapore.

For the first big adrenaline Sebastian Vettel had early on Sunday morning at 7:15 clock care as he rushed completely unannounced with his Formula 1 car on the old market square. It was the ultimate wake-up for “his” day in his home city of Heppenheim, scheduled in the afternoon quite the hag-fever. Some 120,000 fans celebrated the runner, which is spectacular mood for the home Grand Prix next Sunday at the Hockenheimring.

“Sensational, gigantic, towering,” Vettel said, given the Fanmassen and searched for the right words: “It was a complete success, the atmosphere was fantastic. The people are standing in several rows, and tear up his arms. I think that had fun I, in any case. ”
Heppenheim is to “Vettel home”

Because of massive interest had to be closed in both directions, police records, even the exit Heppenheim an der Autobahn A5. Some town signs adorned the name “Vettel home. ‘The streets of Monaco are forgotten. I need to talk with Bernie Ecclestone times, if we do not make the future here,’ smiled Vettel.

On the evening before, he had a little bit afraid that maybe would not get enough viewers admitted Vettel. His fans, however, instructed him one better, transforming the city mere hours before the official start in Germany’s largest paddock. Together with Mattias Ekström Vettel also turned in his DTM-Audi, Smudo Fantastic Four from their laps.
His first exit 14:44 clock lasted only a few minutes because the first course on strike. “Since you can not then the car rumwerfen correct. But do not worry, it was only a prelude,” Vettel promised his fans that were part of several hundred kilometers traveled.

While his mechanics changed the gearbox, Vettel bridged the time for the fans with additional autograph sessions at the track. He was still in the passenger seat of the Ekström DTM Audi chauffeur on the slopes.
Sign the guest book of the city

When his mechanics with the repair was finished, it was Vettel at 16:08 clock itself once again fly right past the station and the stadium. “As I have just tried to play football. They went well not so much, so I am racing then become,” said Vettel.
“I want to show people something,” said Red Bull driver, as he wrote on a piece autographs and caps tossed into the audience. “I’ve never eaten something!” At 10:00 clock, he also had an official appearance as it is in the presence of Hessian interior minister and future prime minister Volker Bouffier into the Golden Book of the City earned.

About a kilometer of road had turned the city into a racetrack Heppenheim. “The road I know so, usually because the speed is 50th, but today there are no speed cameras,” said Vettel, who was driving early Sunday morning for three shots with his Formula 1 car on the cobblestones at the old market square. “That was before secret,” he told and apologized for the unusual disturbance: “As has already stretched one or two head out the window.”

Lewis Hamilton on Friday admitted McLaren might struggle to keep up with rapidly-progressing rivals this weekend in Valencia.

While the British team will only run the innovation in two weeks at Silverstone, Ferrari, Mercedes and Renault have got Red Bull-style ‘blown diffuser’ exhaust layouts up and running on the streets of the Spanish port city.

Hamilton is the championship leader and has won the past two races, but on Friday afternoon was just fifth fastest, behind and surrounded by the ‘blown diffuser’ teams.

“It was always going to be interesting to see how quickly the blown diffuser cars could get up to speed — and they looked very competitive this afternoon, particularly over a single lap,” said the 2008 world champion.

“And the grip they appear to have through the high speed stuff could make them difficult for us to touch,” added Hamilton.

His teammate Jenson Button, just ninth quickest in the final session, commented: “We’ve just got to fight it out here and get the best out of what we’ve got.”

(GMM)

After Friday practice in Valencia, it was still not clear whether Red Bull will use its improved F-duct system for qualifying and the race.

The team used an initial version of the downforce-stalling concept in practice in Turkey, but then decided to leave Adrian Newey in the factory to develop it rather than take the famous Briton to Canada.

The RB6 was fitted with a developed F-duct on Friday in Valencia, where Sebastian Vettel came within mere thousandths of beating Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso to top spot.

“When the system is working, it is a big help,” German Vettel is quoted as saying after practice by the German news agency SID.

As for how it worked on Friday, he added: “In the morning it was still not so good, but in the afternoon better.”

In a post-session statement, the 22-year-old added: “We need to see if we keep the F-duct in the car, we need to confirm that, but all in all I think the pace was promising today considering this shouldn’t be our strongest track.”

(GMM)

In the sunny Valencia enjoyed Kamui Kobayashi and Pedro de la Rosa a smooth first day of practice for the Grand Prix of Europe. It was necessary to find the right balance for the car to optimize brake stability and to gain experience with the two compounds of Bridgestone tires on the street circuit. However, the residue on the top 10 but was again quite large.

“We now have a huge program processed and everything went very well,” said Kobayashi, the 14th with 1.623 seconds gap was. “The new aerodynamics package we need to work on the car balance. It is quite reasonable, but we have to analyze lots of data from today and I am sure there is in it even more. This morning I took the route less polluted than expected . faster tire wear was an issue in the first practice, but in the afternoon, no more. ”
Pedro de la Rosa was 15, was just fractions of a second slower than his teammate. “We have during the day made many changes to the car, to prepare us for tomorrow’s qualifying,” said the Spaniard. “Mainly we have focused on the braking stability. Both tire compounds have on the warm asphalt works pretty well and I did not expect to difficulties, as we have had in Canada. I am today for the first time went on this course. It took a few laps in order to familiarize myself with to catch properly especially the many break points, but I liked the track quickly. ”
“Today, we are no technical problems with the cars,” said technical director James Key had, “and that was good, because in both sessions we had much to do. Adapt We had the car set to the new aero package. This is the first step, to make the car lighter mobile. Basically, we have already found a direction that we can track for tomorrow, but today we must look at all the information evening and see what measures we can implement. ”

He continued: “We still have to work on consistency. If you look at the sector times look, they do not reflect truly reflect the lap times. We need to ensure that drivers can get out of a complete round of the best from the car. We have some areas have made progress and in others still to be done. ”

(TMS)

Sebastian Vettel for the weekend began on schedule in Valencia. Only around the blink of 56 thousandths of a second he landed in his Red Bull behind the acclaimed by the Spanish fans Fernando Alonso, Ferrari retreaded. “We were on a track that we really is not so, pretty good move. But it will be tight, as in Canada,” says the runner.

Vettel was another 88 thousandths of a second faster than his Australian team-mate Mark Webber, who was third place, that the “bull” quickly on the long straights of Valencia on the road. This could have lain on the “second air” for Red Bull set to an unsatisfactory trial in Istanbul for the first time back on their own version of the invented competitor McLaren duct system, which allows greater speed.

“In the morning it was still not as good in the afternoon then better,” said Vettel, who hopes to use one in the running. If the system working, “then it is a big help.”

(TMS)

On a sunny Sunday afternoon in Montrèal, Hispania Racing, HRT F1 Team faught hard for positions with other teams again. Bruno Senna and Karun Chandhok got off to a good start and stayed out of trouble in the first lap. Due to other team’s difficulties at the beginning of the race, both drivers moved up places and kept on closing the gap to their competitors. Unfortunately, Bruno Senna had to retire early in the race due to a gearbox issue. His teammate, however, had a good pace and was battling for good positions during the race. In the end, he finished 18th. The Spanish team had a real racing feeling today and was able to gain more experience.

Dr Colin Kolles, Team Principal:
“Today, we really could race with other teams and were fighting hard for good positions with the other teams.  We were on a two-stopp-strategy like the top six drivers. On one side it was a good race because we could beat Virgin on track. But on the other hand I think that we could have had a better result. Bruno unfortunately had a gear box problem and this is why he had to stop the race.”

Karun Chandhok, Race driver #20:
“Obviously I didn’t drive at all yesterday and it was a good race under these circumstances. We were racing both Virgins and I was eight seconds ahead of Timo Glock even before he stopped in the end. I am quite pleased, at the end realistically we were only racing those three cars and we were ahead of them. It was a tough race with the traffic and everybody was struggling with the tyres. The team did a great job today and the guys did good pit stops under pressure today. The car was reliable, which is what we were struggling with this weekend.”

Bruno Senna, Race driver #21:
“We had a gearbox failure apparently. The second gear was lost and there was no way to finish the race without it on this track. So, we decided to retire which is really disappointing as it could have been a good race for us. Now, we have to make the best of this weekend and focus on the next race in Valencia.”

Source: Hispania Racing Team