The Indian Grand Prix - Practice 2 Formula 1

Good morning from India. We have got a nice little spot here, in the

build-up to you let. This is Lewis Hamilton's home from home on a race

weekend. Gary Anderson is with me. It is great to be in the garage. We

are trying to keep out of the way of all of these guys, who are working

so hard. It is not always easy to predict, but how do you think it

will go in Practice 2? I think Lewis Hamilton will be in the mix. The

card does suit these kind of corners. As we saw with Lewis in the

first session, if you braking errors, but that is what he has

complained about in the Mercedes, he has not got confidence on the brakes

yet. That is what these practice sessions are for. I think we will

see the two of them up the front with the Red Bulls. This weekend,

Sebastian Vettel is hoping to clinch his fourth consecutive title. He was

fastest in practice this morning, and fastest in every practice

session last year as well, which is ominous. Yes, it is. Obviously, they

have got the best driver - car package. But Ross Brawn has come out

and said, it is an inspiration for them, because it shows it can be

done. There is no reason any other team cannot do it as well. Next

year, the other teams will be going into it with a big breath of fresh

air, knowing that they can do what Red Bull have done this year. Here

are the standings... Red Bull could clinch the

Constructors' Championship this week end. Ferrari, Mercedes and Lotus are

battling it out for second. From 18 point of view, these positions can

be worth millions of dollars. The battle for second could be worth $10

million. That is why those three teams will keep fighting for it. You

never know what could happen. A bit of rain, anything could happen, so

you have got to keep fighting until that last chequered flag. Just

behind us, Lewis Hamilton is getting Practice 1 is about setting the car

up, so is Practice 2 about refining the details? It is. It happens at

the same time of day as qualifying and the race, so it is more

important, because the ambient temperature and the tractor which

will be theoretically in the same sort of area. The drivers will be

coming out on the medium tyre, doing a bit of a run, getting up to the

time of day which represents the last qualifying time, and then

coming back in and starting to practice the race run setup. You

have got to get that track temperature to get the tyres to come

in quickly. So, this is the best experiment for qualifying, and for

the race condition. What about the guys around the car, how much does

it mean to them? We hear all the time that it is all about the

team... It is. Lewis Hamilton is sitting in the car, he is just one

of these guys. Without any of them, he cannot do the job. The teams

nowadays have got themselves into a routine. Everything happens at a

certain time. Everything should just be about that routine, making sure

everything is done correct become a and then the car will be ready to

cross the red line. Lewis Hamilton, fit and well. We heard from Paul di

Resta earlier, who had been feeling unwell. Another driver took his seat

for Practice 1, but Paul di Resta is back in his car for this one. Over

to James Allen. Welcome to the Buddh International Circuit. It is the

third time we have been here. Sebastian Vettel has won both of the

previous races from pole position, and who would bet against him doing

three in a row? He only needs a fifth place in order to clinch his

fourth consecutive drivers World Championships. Lost amongst all of

that this weekend a little bit has been the story of the Constructors'

Championship. That is also likely to be clinched this weekend as well.

Red Bull need to leave here with a points advantage in order to be the

constructors champions for the fourth year in a row. Fernando

Alonso, with the new crash helmet. And down in the Ferrari garage is

Jennie Gow. Just looking at Fernando Alonso, the recall, calm and collect

it. He walked across from hospitality to his garage quite

late. Sebastian Vettel was already in his car by that time. He only had

six laps this morning, as opposed to 24 from Sebastian Vettel. He had

gearbox issues this morning, a mechanical problem, is what they

say. It took about one hour 45 minutes for them to fix. He is now

sat in the car, ready to go out. He will be hoping for a better showing

this afternoon. He certainly will. Fernando Alonso, only managing six

laps this morning in Practice 1. We always have very stable weather

conditions here in Delhi. And that is the case this morning, with a lot

of laps taking place, 24 laps, by Sebastian Vettel, who set the

fastest time, ahead of his team-mate, Mark Webber. Rosberg,

looking promising for Mercedes, third fastest. And it was Grosjean,

underlining the form that he has shown since the summer break, with

force place, once again a threat to the cars up front. He was the one

who took the fight to the Red Bulls last time out in Suzuka. Jenson

Button was sixth fastest method of his team-mate, Sergio Perez. That is

the reserve driver for Force India, who sat in for Paul di Resta this

morning. So, the pit lane is open, the cars are out on the circuit. One

hour and 27 minutes of track action to come. I am delighted to say that

the director of motorsport for Pirelli has joined me now. One of

the lovely things about being here in Delhi is that the commentary

boxes are right in the middle of the paddock, so we get lots of guests

dropping in. It is lovely to see you, and what are you expecting from

this weekend? Well, based on last year, it was a one-stop race, so,

coming here with the medium and soft tyre, we think the medium is good

for a lot of laps, will be 35-40. The softer tyre, which is very much

almost a super-soft tyre, in the parlance of previous years, should

bring us in line with a two stop race. That is what we are aiming

for. It was a good race last time out in Japan, from a strategy point

of view, with Grosjean getting the jump at the start, meaning Red Bull

had to change their strategy. Some fans who happens to have backed

Webber were not very happy, but it can be clearly explained. It was

very interesting to see how it panned out, just a shame in a way

that Webber took so long to come through Grosjean at the end it

showed the strength of Red Bull in this last part of the season, that

they can do different strategies and end up really very close together

between the two cars at the end. Roman Grosjean did a great drive as

well. That is what you are after, really, you have come in for some

flak in terms of bringing in tyres which degrade more quickly, to try

and make strategy a part of the game here in Formula 1, and would you say

that races like that in Japan are a showcase for what you are trying to

achieve? Yes. People sometimes have short memories. You have to

remember, we were asked to come up with two stop and three stop

strategy is, and it would appear that is the way the sport wants to

carry on going forward. One-stop is not part of the brief. When we have

a one-stop race, like we did at Monza, we have quite a lot of

complaints! I remember last year, you came with a relatively

conservative choice, and I think the fourth fastest laps of the race were

set in the closing laps of the Grand Prix, which showed that you had

brought tyres which were conservative, because they had

plenty of life left in them. Exactly, but we are limited, we have

only got a certain number of components it is difficult to get it

right every single time. If you look at Germany this year, and Hungary as

well, which are historically extremely boring races, but both of

those came together in the last few laps, so, from that point of view,

we feel that we are delivering what we have been asked to do. One hour

25 minutes remaining in this unit session, ahead of Sunday's Indian

Grand Prix from the Buddh International Circuit in Delhi. We

have got four or five cars out on circuit at moment. Raikkonen has

gone fastest in the early exchanges. Three laps on the board for him. He

is doing in the one point 28, Emma whereas the fastest lap from last

year was in the 1.25 pro-. We are going to see drivers doing long runs

on both types of tyre, and then about halfway through this session,

we will see them take some fuel out, running relatively close to a

qualifying fuel load, to simulate qualifying. How accurate a read do

you think the teams get from that? It is a very good read. It also, you

get a little bit of kit elegy. Sometimes people will put ten kilos

extra in just to mix it up. That is something that we see only after the

session, when we analyse the data later on. For viewers on BBC Two,

you can see the heat build-up in the tyres of Raikkonen. It is a very

interesting feature which we have got in the second half of the

season. You are the supremely qualified person to talk us through

it. Can see, under loading, under braking, going through the corners,

you can see where the temperature is being created. It calls down rapidly

of course on the straight. That shows you that it is not an easy

life for the tyres! You can see that even when the temperature drops out,

the inside shoulder still retains quite a lot of heat, does that

indicate they are still leaning the tyres in at a camber angle? Yes, we

have 3.5 degrees on the front, 2.5 degrees limitation on the rear. That

is where you are seeing the work it is always on the shoulder of the

tyre, which is reflected in the where profiles. This is only year

three of this circuit, and they do not exactly have bad weather here in

India, so it is not like the winters will be taking anything out of the

track, but what are you seeing in terms of how this track is evolving?

It is interesting. We were talking about it because we have got a

couple of new tracks next season. In terms of the surface, places like

USA, here, Korea, Abu Dhabi, have quite smooth track surfaces,

compared to some of the older tracks, like Malaysia, which is the

extreme example. In terms of the layout, it will go on

extreme example. In terms of the layout, it will go about some of the

tracks not being exciting, but this is an interesting layout from a

track point of view. So, to remind ourselves, next year, Sochi in

Japan, Russia, being built around the Winter Olympics course. It looks

like a very quick circuit. On the layout, yes, although there is

nothing there yet to measure! We would ordinarily go and take

measurements before we get there, and we are waiting to be able to get

out there as soon as the surface is laid to verify what it is like.

Sometimes in the first years, you do get a little bit of leaching out of

the chemicals on the surface, so the first year can be a little bit

different from subsequent years. But overall we are anticipating surface

is very similar to these new tracks. We have got the

refurbishment of is very similar to these new

tracks. We have got an old circuit in Austria, we have got potentially

a race around the harbour on the waterside in New York, in New

Jersey. Kimi Raikkonen just spinning there at the hairpin. Has he kept

the engine running Cassius coming he has. He just got his left rear tyre

up on the gravel trap. Grosjean fastest, and a flat spot on the left

front tyre. Yes, that is a pretty big flat spot. I would guess that he

has got a vibration, so he will be looking to come in and change that.

So, Grosjean fastest, Hamilton second at the moment. Vettel has

gone fastest, he set the fastest time here last year in every single

practice section, and qualifying, and the race. He has a way around

here, although you could say that around a lot of places. Do you see

anybody getting close to him? It is going to be very tough. If we see

the way they have evolved the car since the August closure, if you

like, they have really done a tremendous job, Red Bull, and they

have been extremely dominant. You can imagine them really finishing

the season in the same vein double vets get down to the pits.

Spoke to one of the members of the team between the first practise and

this practise. Kimi is not happy with the set-up of his car this

morning. I think they went the wrong with the balance. They are going to

have another look at this this afternoon. Just watching him spin

out, maybe they have not done enough. I am just waiting for the

car to come back in. Not sign of it just yet.

Gary, you have got a view of the spin we saw for Kimi Raikkonen? It

is one of those situations where you know, you have to keep going for a

while on the tyres because these things can happen. A lot of these

corners, you go over the brow of the hill. You can't see the apex of the

corner until you are on the corner. It does tempt you to go quick. The

circuit is very, very open. There is no walls or anything close to the

track surface. It is difficult to get a reference until you go over

the top of the hills. A lot of these corners suck you in. You have got

tracks that have crash barriers close to the track and you are off

the pace a little bit. But here we see more run off areas. Rosberg

going wide at turn 16. That's because it is so open. You push the

car to the maximum limit because the track doesn't give you many

references. You see lots and lots of mistakes. Rosberg wouldn't get away

with that in qualifying. He would get penalised for that. Well, Gary,

it is a 3.18 mile circuit and 16 turns. It is only in its third year.

It is a difficult circuit to set a car up for, as well, isn't it? It is

getting the balance right. It asks a lot of different questions of the

car. It does, yeah. I have just seen a replay of Rosberg missing the apex

and running off wide. Yeah, it is very difficult. Straight line speed

is very important. The long corners 10 and 11 are important. A

compromise in set-up and not easy to achieve.

Turn five, six and seven, an interesting area of the circuit as

vetful improves -- Vettel improves. Grosjean is second fastest. It is

Hamilton third, Perez fourth, Raikkonen fifth, Ricciardo going

strongly in the Torro Rosso. Felipe Massa who in the last couple of

years has been stronger in qualifying in the closing stages of

the championship seasons. Last year, in Austin he had to be moved out of

the way with a phantom gearbox issue so Alonso could start on the clean

side of the track and get a better get away. Massa is eighth and Button

is ninth and Hulkenberg is down in tenth place. Mark Webber now pops up

into second place. On again under lining the form Red Bull have shown.

Here is Vettel's radio. TEAM RADIO: We think we can fix

KERS, but if you can learn something, have another go. We have

got time. Vettel has another KERS issue, we

think. So well, we will keep an eye on that. The team principal and

shareholder at Sauber is with Jenny. A lot of people are saying this

could be the last time we come here. It is not on the calendar for next

year. What are your feelings about that? It is sad. It is a special

Grand Prix. We have seen over the last years that we are having

increasingly higher number of fans here. So it will be sad if it is not

on. At the moment, it does look scarce. There is not many people

here. Do you think Formula One could compete with cricket? No. I don't

think we should try that. We have to establish ourselves here. We have to

find our niche somewhere and if we had the time, I am sure we could do

that. It is all about time and giving the Grand Prix time to bed in

and it doesn't look like that is happening. How much disappoint pt is

there within the paddock? Well, such for the race people, we have been

confronted with certain obstacles. It is not only the administration,

but it is all the other discussions going on about tax issues and things

and it doesn't have anything to do with us as a sport and what gets to

some people if you are being questioned as a sport. There are a

mixed feelings. How is this weekend looking for both your guys in India?

The track is similar to Korea which was not a bad race for us. So we

have come here with high expectations and hopes. We know we

have to go on the way we have been. No mistakes. And make sure we get

everything right and we are there to grab the points. We talked about the

constructors championship being tied up by Red Bull, but the fight for

you is so important. How confident are you that you can take the prized

spot from them? We were just five points away from P5 and we didn't

manage to get our act together and score the five points and we had so

many races. I'm cautious and we have to try.

Talk to me about Nico Rosberg -- Hulkenberg. There are lots of

rumours about a move back to Force India. What's your understanding of

the situation? Well, I have an understanding which I can't tell you

right now. We know other people are interested in him. He is a very good

driver. That's why we took him on boardment of we have options and we

will announce it in due course. I love the way you keep us holding on.

I suppose the same goes for Gutierrez and his future with you as

well? Yes. It was worth a try, Jenny. Hulkenberg is very much in

demand despite being one of the heaviest drivers in Formula One

which is an issue which we have been hearing, but Gary Anderson would

dispute that. Sauber are 17 points behind Force India. It has been a

strong run for the he Sauber team. They keep racking the points up. We

were hearing from Manisha, it is a shame to go to a venue and the

problems like the administration and the tax issues. This race appeared

to be under threat this weekend with a petition to get the race cancelled

due tonne an issue of payment of tax and the classification of Formula

One where it is a sport and entertainment. The news, as I came

back to the commentary box just after talking to one of the

officials, the Indian justice system is going to hear this case after the

Grand Prix. There is no threat to the Grand Prix. . I am not sure if

there was. It is one of those that seems to spring up on the he eve of

a big event? They seem to get resolved every year which is

positive, but it does make it a little bit more difficult from the

administration point of view. It is disappointing that you go to

new venues and not get a chance to build the sport in the areas, isn't

it? India, with an Indian team and with a sports mad country and a fast

growing rising middle-class and a young middle-class, all the points

that Formula One looks for around the world, it ought to work here?

When you compare it to cricket, it is new. It is new and you need time

to build that and it doesn't happen overnight, not just you turn up that

suddenly everyone will arrive and more so when you have stand alone

circuits. You have the exception of maybe somewhere like Austin, but

stre circuits tends to force people to - you ruin their weekend. They

can't move anywhere because you have turned up like Singapore and when

you do street circuits in new locations you get the interest

there. Rosberg is saying more under steer in the car and he doesn't

understand why. There is an hour and ten minutes on the clock. Mercedes

are chasing after Red Bull. At the moment, Rosberg is top of the time

sheets. Sebastian Vettel is third and it is Perez, Grosjean mill,

Hamilton. It would appear to me from the outside that Grosjean has got

his act together within the Lotus team since the summer break in

particular. He has got his head together in terms of his

performances, but in qualifying, he seems to have an edge over Kimi

Raikkonen. How much of that is his own personal development and the

different spec of tyres? Well, Romain Grosjean has always been

quick. He was our first tester. We did a season at GP 2. Everyone

throughout the paddock have said that they knew him to be a quick

driver. It was maybe the driving skills. He has got his act together

and showed it is not an act in the -- flash in the pan. It is great for

him and it is great for the sport. Having a French driver present in a

top team is fantastic and he is maturing nicely which I am sure is

what Eric saw when he brought him on when some people were saying he is

he was -- he was taking a a risk. You brought a different construction

of tyre from that point on wards. Is it stiffer in the side walls or less

stiff? Is there a reason why he is able to get more out of the tyre on

Saturdays particularly in qualifying? No, I wouldn't put it

down to that. There is a difference in vertical stiffness for sure, but

that would make enough of a difference to his qualifying. I

would love to say, yes, but it is probably not true! It is interesting

though. Raikkonen is not as strong in qualifying as he was perhaps in

the first part of the season. He is coming through in the races, but he

is giving himself more work to do. The top five, Rosberg on top then.

Let's check-in with Gary Anderson at Mercedes. I am down here with Nico

Rosberg's car. He was complaining about having more under steer. When

the track rubbers in a bit and when the grip level rises, that leads to

under steer because the rear tyres grip that more. When you put on the

softer tyre, you have under steer. They will be doing a set-up change

at the same time as putting the tyres on to make sure they

compensate for that because the tyres will last one good, hard lap.

After that, you have thrown everything away and you are going to

do a good lap time, you need to get it out of the tyres on the first

lap. Well, it is the yellow side walled tyres that are are on the

car. Paul, do you agree with Gary there? Yes, the extra challenge will

be a bit of graining on the softer tyres and that's something we will

only evaluate now. It is smooth and we will want to see if it does get

up to temperature quick enough to give that quick lap. If they have

got understeer, it will get worse now and that will be the challenge.

One of the things that Gary observed throughout the season is that ebb

Sebastian Vettel seems to have a way of using the qualifying tyre. He

makes sure he has got plenty left at the end. The team radio here.

Jao TEAM RADIO: Yesterday, I was

watching quali. They do more than one lap on these tyres.

It sounds like you are not expecting that this year? It is a two stop

race and the softer tyre will ensure we get to that, but you know, teams

have been working hard on the rear tyre management. Red Bull in

particular. We see that from the data. At the start of the year, they

maybe were overheating and that's been reduced in the last part of

this season. There was all sorts of clever tricks

going on in order to do that. If you get a chance, look online at the

inside of the wheels. The Red Bull and the Mercedes have been doing a

lot of work. Using the heat in the rear tyres or dispersing the heat

that comes off the brakes and inside the wheels. Very, very clever stuff

going on. It is real cutting edge science in order to manage the

thermal management of the tyres. It is critical in this Pirelli era. The

Pirelli motorsport director is with me. There is just over an hour to go

in this 90 minutes free practise session. I have yet to see anyone

going out on the softer of the two tyre compounds. Remember, you can

get in touch with us using the hashtag F 1 on twitter. One for Paul

here, will there be any changes to the tyres next year given that we

have the introduction of new technology on the cards? I know the

answer is yes. It has been a headache for you, hasn't? A big

challenge. You get a lot of talk. Management of the rear tyre

overheating is going to be vital. So you just mentioned Red Bull and

Mercedes, probably a lot of work they are doing already and it will

give them some good information for next year. So we have to become a

little bit more conservative. There is no doubt about that. But

indications are that we are still aiming for a two to three stop race.

The teams have had meetings and the indications, we will try to make

sure there is no one stop racing. Thank you.

. We have got another question here -

with the Indian Grand Prix being a compromise of speed and cornering,

Gary Anderson, two teams set up their cars to favour one aspect, or

both equally? It is difficult. Straight-line speed means running

lower wing levels, but in qualifying, to be honest, the more

downforce you can run, faster lap time you can do. So, you are in the

middle of that. downforce you can run, faster lap

time you can do. So, you You will try to make sure you are running

enough downforce so as not to destroy the towers. -- tyres. You

would maybe try to make sure the balance of the car through turn 12

is very good. As Paul Hembery was saying, when you get graining on the

front tyres, you get more and more understeer, and it tears the top of

the tyres away. Minimising that graining is vitally important. As

far as qualifying is concerned, on one lap, it does not really matter.

Currently Raikkonen with the fastest time. We will look at how much he

improves by. You are anticipating about eight tenths, with the softer

tyre? Eight tenths to one second, yes. Kimi Raikkonen has backed right

off now. That was quite a moment, the front of the car simply did not

want to go where he wanted it to, through that very difficult turn 10

at the top of the hill. It sounds like understeer came into play

again, with the change of tyre. As you say, it was not going where he

wanted it to! No, the Lotus got up on the brightly coloured paint, and

he lost his grip. Meanwhile, Grosjean has been pushing pretty

hard. He has had to back out of a lap as well. Vettel is also on the

softer tyre, doing a convocation simulation. Is the fastest of

anybody so far in the first sector. Watch out for Sebastian Vettel. He

runs really wide, but gathers it all up nicely on the exit of that

corner, and in fact, all four wheels, completely off the road

there for Sebastian Vettel. He would get into trouble if you did that in

qualifying. Yes, I guess so! He has done a lap of 1.3 seconds faster, on

the softer tyre. Over to Jennie Gow. We are just hearing some positive

news from Marussia, about your future in the sport? We are very

happy to confirm that we have signed an agreement with the commercial

rights holder to continue in the same way that the other teams are

continuing in Formula 1. It is something we are really happy to

have been able to get concluded. I know I spoke to you earlier in the

season, and you were not quite sure what was going to happen. No, it has

taken a long time, but the thing is, we have got the deal done, it is

signed, and we can look forward to racing for many years to come. What

change will that make within the Marussia team? To be honest, it is

more about what we will do next year. That agreement with the

commercial rights holder has now been put to bed, so I think it will

be more about people how people perceive as externally, than

anything else. Thank you very much. When he talks about that, he is

talking about sponsors as much is about fans. Because sponsors would

not want to get involved with the team if they are not sure whether

the team will survive, because of not having a commercial arrangement.

They were the odd one out for a very long time, the 11th team, although

at the moment they are on target to finish 10th, and Caterham are the

11th team, as things stand. But that is good news for Formula 1, and for

Marussia, a well-run team, as I found when I went on the pit wall on

Saturday morning practice in Canada. Absolutely. They are a very

hard-working team, they do not have the resources of the top teams, but

they have a plan and they are working to it. It is good for

Formula 1 that they will now be able to move forward and probably attract

the sponsors which might have been hindered. I know you have to rush

off because you have got a busy afternoon in front of you, but just

some final thoughts, as we look at Mark Webber setting off, we saw a

big improvement from Vettel there? Yes, he was maybe taking an

exaggerated way around the circuit, but yes, they are looking strong. No

surprises there. But also, we are going to get will be the Mercedes

and the Lotus pushing them as hard as they can. Thank you very much for

taking the time to come and visit us in the commentary box, Paul, good

luck for the weekend and for the rest of this season.

RADIO: Copy that, do you think it is worth to adjust the front wing?

JAMES ALLEN: At sounds like one for Gary Anderson to comment on, Nicky

Hulkenberg commenting on how he might be able to get rid of this

understeer. GARY ANDERSON: Yes, as the track

grip comes up, quite a few of the cars are probably speaking about

that turn 10, where we saw Timmy going wide.

cars are probably speaking about that turn 10, where we saw The rest

of these corners, with a quick change of direction, they are not

too bad. It is those long corners, and for a driver, he is just sitting

in the middle of the corner, waiting to get the throttle back on again.

If he is putting more and more steering lock on it, then that is

the thing he is going to complain about, so I think we will hear a lot

of that before the end of Sunday afternoon. Mark Webber goes second

fastest, using the softer compound tyre, just under three tenths of a

second slower than Sebastian Vettel. So, the two Red Bulls at the top of

the time sheet, but Nico Rosberg is out there on the soft tyres at the

moment, as well as Raikkonen. Sebastian Grosjean has yet to make

the switch. He will take a big step forward ahead of Raikkonen I think

when he does move to that tyre. Nico Rosberg is on his out lap, beginning

his hot lap. We will keep an eye out for him, see what improvement he

makes. Interesting to see Vettel caning over a second by moving from

the medium tyre to the softer tyre, substantially more than Paul Hembery

from Pirelli was predicting, and a lot of that was to do with the fact

that he quite literally went completely off the road, and he

would not be able to do that, for sure, and I am sure the drivers will

be discussing that this evening in the drivers' meeting.

In the past, we have seen Mercedes struggling to match the Red Bull on

the Friday. They tend to get faster as we move towards Sunday, certainly

that has been the case this season so far. Red Bull would seem to be

the car in the ascendancy so far. Rosberg attacking hard, going right

off the road as well, and he has now gone third fastest.

Hulkenberg has gone wide at Romeo-11, which is catching a lot of

people out today. Over to Jennie Gow. We have got another Brit who is

starting in a support race this weekend. Laura, the only British

woman to begin beating this weekend, and it is a bit of a surprise for

you, isn't it? Yes, I only found out two weeks ago that I was doing the

race. It is a great atmosphere here so I am so psyched up to do it. I

heard a little birdie saying that you were just happy to be on the

same circuit as all of the Formula 1 drivers. Yes, they are the people

you look up to as a driver. You started karting I think when you

were 11, but your history in our team goes all the way back to your

grandfather and your father, and you have been involved in developing

racing seats, to protect people's lumbar spines as well. Yes, I

progressed through to single-seaters, seeing my friends

like Charles Pic and Jules Bianchi, so I had to do it as well, see if I

could give them a run for their money. Explain what it is like as a

young British female trying to develop through this game. It is

really difficult, because obviously, there are sexist people in this

sport. So, you have two show your absolute best all of the time.

Funding wise, it is quite difficult, I know another young

British female, Alice Powell, was here last year, and she could not

find a place at the higher levels, so what hopes have you got? It is

really difficult, it is catching the right person at the right moment.

You have to present yourself well and make sure you do the job on the

day. Do you find that your dad having been in racing helps? In

karting, yes, in cars, he is not so good. But yes, he knows a lot of

people. So, what is the next step for you, do you try to go back to

the UK to compete next year? I hope not. I hope to do either Europe or

some world racing. I just love the atmosphere and the heat, it is

brilliant. Do you seriously think that in the future, you could

challenge to be on this grid in F1? I think that soon a girl will, and I

just hope I can be that girl. Laura till it, trying to make her

way as a young female racing driver. Of course, you have got Susie Wolff,

a development driver for the Williams team, a former shareholder

of Williams. But I completely agree, not enough women coming through the

system, it would be absolutely fantastic to get a competitive

female Formula 1 driver, and hopefully it will not be too long

before we see that. We have got 51 minutes of this Practice 2 session,

ahead of Sunday's Indian Grand Prix. We are about 15-20 minutes outside

of Delhi, if there is no traffic, anyway. It is a 3.18 mile circuit,

and they really challenging one, as the drivers have been finding. A lot

of them have been struggling with understeer. Kimi Raikkonen is having

a bit of a job getting his Lotus to go around turn 10 and 11 as he wants

it to. Some of them have been going

completely off the track, which will be a talking point with the racing

director, Charlie biting, to discuss with the drivers. The current state

of play is... Grosjean was challenging on the

medium compound tyre earlier on, but has fallen away a bit on the soft.

We saw Hamilton out on circuit, and he came into the pits, and

presumably is fitting a set of soft tyres, because he has not yet gone

out on the softer compound. Alonso also yet to go out on his qualifying

simulation run. He is currently in 10th place. He had problems this

morning with a gearbox problem. Alonso, chasing it a bit this

weekend, and relying on the information he gets from Felipe

Massa, who managed to do 21 laps this morning.

Maldonado is 11th. Where is he going next radio year -- next year? There

is discussions of whether he will take his Venezuelan oil money to a

different team. The Williams Team has been visiting Venezuela to make

sure everything is good. Button down in 12th place at the moment. Felipe

Massa's brother is in the garage. Remember those scenes with him and

his father when they thought they had won the 2012 World Championship.

The whole family bouncing up and down by telling them that Lewis

Hamilton was going to finish fifth and win the world championship. I

don't think they ever recovered from the disappointment Ricciardo 15th.

He is yet to use the soft compound tyre. Sutil is 14th. There are

question marks over his future as Force India work out what their best

options are for next year. Valtteri Bottas has had real high points this

year. Third place on the grid in Canada. 15th at the moment and yet

to use the softer compound tyres. TEAM RADIO: How is that front tyre,

Nico? It is OK. Hulkenberg being asked about the

tyres there. He says just about OK. He has the fourth fastest time at

the moment. He gave the tyres a breather and did another couple of

laps. Red Bull are one and two as they were on the grid here the last

couple of years and Gary, what are you seeing in the garage? I am

watching ebb is seb's war -- I'm watching Sebastian Vettel's car. And

they have just been doing a set-up change on the back of the car. The

rear entry roll bar, it is the link that stops the back of the car from

rolling. If you go softer. I imagine when we saw Sebastian Vettel run off

the circuit a couple of times it was because of understeer. It will hurt

the rear tyre more. If they are going for a long run, now is the

time to experiment with that. There is work going on in the rear wing

assemblies. They will be checking the differential. He has got some

problem at the back of the car as well. But they look happy enough

with it and they should be back out on the track soon.

Thank you very much, Gary. We have over three-quarters of an hour

remaining in the second free practise session ahead of Sunday's

Indian Grand Prix. In our paddock centre commentary position we have

been joined by Force India's reserve driver, James Calado, who was out on

circuit this morning in free practise one and he did 22 laps in

Paul di Resta's car. Can how did you enjoy that this morning, James? Paul

was sick yesterday afternoon so I found out... Did you take him out

for a curry the night before? I dropped ice cubes in his drink! I'm

joking! It was better for him to miss the session. A good session.

Yeah, 22 laps and getting up to speed. I had a little spin at one

point which was a shame because it was a good chunk of, it was a better

lap and it was unfortunate to the to be able to show what I could do this

there. We did everything we needed to do and I went through the

programme. I gave good feedback. You have not been able to try the softer

tyre which everybody is doing. We are hearing a lot of drivers

complaining about understeer. The car not wanting to turn in. We have

seen Kimi Raikkonen having a handful of a moment up at turn ten. What is

it about this place from the driver's point of view? It is a

fantastic track, but it involves high-speed, fast flowing corners

which can easily generate undertier in these -- understeer in these

cars. When you go into on to a softer compound, more understeer is

produced. This morning, that was the main issue with other teams

including ourselves, it was trying to get the front tyres to turn in

and feel a good bite from the car which was something we were lacking.

The guys are working hard to solve these iruse. I am -- issues. I am

sure by P 3, it will be no problem. What sort of things do you go for?

Put more front wing on? Add more front wing or reduce rear wing.

There is so much you can do. When you change something, it can improve

that bit, but you always lose an advantage somewhere else. So it is a

fine line between making the correct decision.

It always has a knock on effect, right? Yes. These cars are so much

more complex? They are fantastic to drive, so quick. But like I said,

very sensitive to change. Very sensitive to everything you can do

on them. Great stuff really. Fernando Alonso is on a lap at the

moment. His first sector just coming through to cut the tape now. A

tricky little section this, five, six and seven. 130mph on the way in

and 100mph and out towards the fast kink of eight and nine. Very

difficult corner for a lot of the cars through 11. He let's the car

run out. 170mph then and 150mph on the apex there. Now building up to

165mph and turns it into turn 15 and he will cross the line shortly to

give us an indication of how his lap is going. Turn 16 is where Vettel

and Rosberg were well outside the white lines and he goes fourth

fastest. The Ferrari has been struggling all

year. He is just in front of Nico Rosberg. Just from a driver's point

of view, we were talking about going completely beyond the white lines,

outside the confines of the circuit. Over the last few years this has

been a hot talking point in the drivers' briefings. The rule is you

are not allowed to do it. We have seen Sebastian Vettel doing it it

and Rosberg did it. When the drivers talk about it, what's the line you

take? The rule is simple. You don't go over the white line and gain an

advantage and if done so, your lap will be delete or you will receive a

penalty. In free practise, it is not so much an issue. The drivers are

finding the limit and getting to grips with the car and things. There

maybe a little thing from the team or a little warning from Charlie to

say keep within the limits, but for qualifying you won't see this, but

if you do, you will see penalties given.

Charlie Whiting formally a chief mechanic with the team when he was

owned by Bernie Ecclestone. I was with them in the summer and they

added up between them they have done something like 2,000 Grand Prix or

something ridiculous. In total. It is all the Grand Prix that happened

since the late 1960s which is most of the Grand Prix that ever

happened. Jean-Eric Vergne out on circuit in the Torro Rosso. He knows

his team-mate for next year. Lots of action going with Torro Rosso. A

lively looking car. He is up in the long spoon-like hairpin and he is

dancing a dance with that car? He is doing the tango! He made a few

mistakes there. He is just cooling the tyres down. Lively. A bit too

much temp in the rear tyres. You find the big benefit with the

Pirellis doing a cool down lap and going again, you are able to squeeze

more extra laps than if you pushed every single lap. They get too hot?

Yes, they get too hot and when that's the case, they degrade

quicker. Like I said, he is just doing a cool down lap.

You can't do that in a race, can you? No.

Is that why you have to be more measured lap after lap? If you were

just to push every single lap you would have to pit five or six laps

earlier. It is a matter of the teams deciding good ta are get time and

how the driver feels pushing the car.

James Calado joining us here on the BBC. Free practise two at the Indian

Grand Prix. Round 16 of 19 in this World Championship. We have seen

most of the drivers doing their qualifying simulation runs. Vettel

is fastest in free practise this morning and fastest again this

afternoon. Just over, just under three tenths to his team-mate.

Grosjean, the only one who has taken the fight to the Red Bulls.

Hamilton is in tenth place. He has a set of soft tyres bolted on to the

Mercedes now. We will see how close this Mercedes can get to the pace of

the Red Bull. Rosberg, what is he? He is seven tenths slower. It was a

troubled lap for Nico Rosberg because he has Alonso in front of

him who hasn't been pulling up trees in terms of pace this season.

A quick thought before we see Hamilton's lot. Jean-Eric Vergne

knows his team-mate for next year is Daniil Kvyat. He is a 19-year-old

Russian I I have been watching Daniil Kvyat closely this year and I

like what I see. What are your thoughts? He is a ta he lented guy.

-- he is a talented guy. He is a very, very fast driver. He is very

young. He is 19. It is a big step GP 3 to Formula One. I am sure he will

manage. They wouldn't put him in the car if they didn't think he was good

enough. Obviously, I feel sorry for Felix in the World Series, he is out

of a seat now and it will give Jean-Eric Vergne a run for his

money. They have been sharing a flat. Yes,

I mean, I don't think they will be living together now!

I the don't think so! Daniil Kvyat will be moving to Monaco shortly!

When you drive for Torro Rosso you do it for the honour. As a young

driver, you don't get much money in your first years in Formula One. It

is political. The fact that young drivers need to bring money to be

able to drive these cars as a race driver, so it is very, very tough,

but I'm looking forward to seeing Daniil Kvyat in the Torro Rosso and

we will see if he is good enough. Torro Rosso had young drivers.

Daniil Kvyat has done more.s The other thing that will be tricky for

any rooky coming in next year is the complexity of the technology, you

are talking about 1.6 hybrid turbo engines and managing the fuel. If

you don't know any different, you just jump in and give it your best

shot just like Lewis Hamilton? Lewis was doing a lot of testing before he

got in the car. He was older and more experienced as

well? Exactly. It is tough as a 19-year-old. It is not just the fact

that it is the race driving, it is the mental pressure. It is the media

and everything. It is overwhelming even for me and I'm getting on a bit

now. I'm -- 24. The decision has been made and I'm sure it is the

correct one. . On his qualifying simulation. So faster than

team-mate, Rosberg by a couple of tenths and edges out Alonso as well.

It is Vettel, Webber, Grosjean, Hamilton, Rosberg, Felipe Massa and

Raikkonen. We have Lotus in the Great Ormond Street of -- in the

form of Romain Grosjean putting pressure on the Red Bulls. And the

Mercedes chasing as well? Romain Grosjean is doing a fantastic job.

He seems to be edging out ahead of Kimi. Yeah, I think the red Bull is

extremely strong. Even when you follow it, it has got fantastic

grip. The Lotus is not far off. It will be interesting in the

qualifying session. So one of the Ferraris is in the

pits. In fact, it was Max Chilton. It was in fact, Felipe Massa who

dived into the pits. At tht point we say thank you to James, but it is

always a pleasure to see you in our paddock centre commentary position.

Thanks for stopping by and good luck with getting a ride for next

yearment of we hope to see you on the grid next year. James Calado

then, the development driver, reserve driver for the Force India

team. Sebastian Vettel is number four in

the all-time winners' list. Six wins from pole position this

year. He already has one hand on the Championship Trophy. He is on a

longer run now, using the softer compound tyre. This is what James

Calado was just talking about, in terms of looking after the tyres,

managing them. What he is doing now is simulating the opening stint of

the Grand Prix, he wants to see how long these tyres will last and how

they will behave in the early phase of the Grand Prix, having done a

hard qualifying lap on them. As Paul Hembery from Pirelli was telling us,

they are expecting this to be a two stop race. First stop, somewhere

around 15-17, ideally, and the second one in the late 30s.

around 15-17, ideally, and the second Last year, most people

stopping just the once. RADIO: That looks bad! I think he is

talking about his left front tyre. It does look bad. It has got to

bands of warm rubber clearly visible. The left front tyre of Nico

Hulkenberg. I am delighted to say, joining us now is the communications

director from the Toro Rosso team, and an old friend, Eric. You have

got a 19-year-old, I do not know what it is about you, mentoring

these young drivers, another 19-year-old, Daniil Kvyat, is he

ready? No, absolutely not. They are not ready when they come to us,

ready? No, absolutely not. They are not ready when they come that is the

point, I suppose. We had a choice from the young drivers programme,

and he was the most ready, as opposed to actually being ready. I

met him at Silverstone at the young drivers' test for the first time,

and he seems a very clever guy, even if he did put himself in the

gravel. We will just see how he gets on. He is having a seat fitted soon,

and then we will be taking him down to do enough miles to get his super

licence, and then, all being well, he will run in the morning practice

sessions in the last two races in Austin, Texas and Sao Paulo. We will

see how he goes. Just 19 years of age, but I have to say, I have been

watching GP3 quite closely, and he is quite impressive, he is not only

quick but he looks like he has got quite a calm mentality on him. He

looks reasonably strong in the head. Yes, he has certainly taken a step

up in the last few races, I think. He has had some really strong

performances. And so, we will see. His big moment comes in Abu Dhabi,

and he is seven points behind the leader in the GP3 Championship come

about is the last race, and I think the momentum is with him. That would

be a good way to go into the winter, if he could win that Championship.

And that is what we have just been seeing with Hulkenberg, a message

from the engineer of Sebastian Vettel, saying, a lot of teams are

struggling with the left front tyre, and Vettel himself observing

that he feels it is going away after three or four laps. Those of you

watching BBC Two, you can start to see a pattern beginning to emerge on

that left front tyre, a darkening area about 3-4 inches from the

inside shoulder of the tyre. Mark Webber has it, too. Gary Anderson is

the man to analyse it, so Gary, tell us what we are seeing. It is what

the compound of the tyre is about four millimetres thick of rubber.

Basically, that part of the tread, it is not stiff enough, because it

is a very soft compound. It is not stiff enough for these fast, long

corners. Going around the corner, you will tear the top of the surface

off, because it is moving too much, so it is tearing the rubber. It

pulls off the rubber, and it will go away after four or five laps, but

that is because you have worn quite a lot of rubber off the top, and

when you start to do that, although the lap times get better, it does

not last as long. So, if you run the car too fast through turn 10 and 11,

you get a lot of graining, or you run it slow and hope that it comes

back again, later in the race. So, definitely driver decisions to be

made on Sunday afternoon. A perfect and graphic illustration of what we

made on Sunday afternoon. A perfect and graphic mean by graining, with

the top of the tyre beginning to shear off, like one of those

old-fashioned rubbers you had at school, where there were lots of

bits of rubber lying on your exercise book. That is essentially

what happens with the top layer of the tyres. Vettel has gone into the

pits, after three or four laps on those tyres. He had already got into

big trouble, and his lap times had dropped off quite dramatically,

after just three laps. Yes, I think it will be a problem throughout the

field, if problem is the right word. I heard my guys on the radio

complaining of similar problems. It is not just the guys at the top end

of the grid, by any means. That is Eric, from the Toro Rosso team,

joining just under half an hour of this you let session remaining. We

have been speaking about your recruitment, Eric, of the young

19-year-old, and in the case of this seat, which was made vacant by

Daniel Ricciardo moving to Red Bull, it was Felix to cost and Carlos St

Junior, both of them were pushing hard for the opportunity, so why did

they not get it? It is a brutal thing to say, but the people who did

the assessing just reckoned they were not good enough. They reckoned

that Daniil was a better bet. Carlos is still very young, and does not

have so much experience, and the cost, looking at his season, it did

seem to plateau a bit. So maybe that had some influence on it. -- di

Costa. If you think a guy has got the talent to do it eventually, then

that is the guy you go for. So that is it for di Costa, is it I am not

really the right person to ask. But I think he did enough to impress

people like Dr Marco and the rest, that something will be done to find

him some sort of seat in some sort of motorsport. One other thing

people have been asking, with the Daniil Kvyat thing, is he bringing

any money to this? I have seen all of the comments, and we have had

quite a lot of criticism, but no, it was done purely on merit.

RADIO: Very worn but stable at the moment. Nico Rosberg talking about

that so, where is Rosberg? He is five or six laps in to his run on

these tyres, ten seconds slower than his single lap pace. But bear in

mind, he is carrying fuel. This tyre is in fact 14 laps old.

So, it looks like Rosberg has been through the graining phase and got

the tyre to stabilise again. It's of rubber flying off the front tyre of

Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari, as he hammers down the long back

straight. He is fifth fastest, just giving the tyres a bit of a

breather. Lots of storylines coming out of this practice session. 24

minutes remaining. It is a challenge for the teams, to get on top of the

tyres this weekend. It is certainly not going to be a one-stop race,

Eric. It does not look that way at all. With the dirty track and the

graining, it makes finding the proper setup even harder on a day

like this. I went into my garage, and it looked as though there had

been a car crash in the garage, there were so many bits off the car,

as we were trying various things. We have been talking about Toro Rosso,

who have signed Daniil Kvyat signed for next year, and you have got a

number of sponsors on the car now which are from the Middle East, so I

sense a bit of a shift within the team, with the influence of the

Middle East, Abu Dhabi in particular? That is correct. I have

heard it referred to as our home race, which is strange. Basically,

all our sponsors are part of a group which is based there. They have

invested heavily in us, and hopefully we will be able to deliver

some good results for the next season.

RADIO: It looks like the option tyre is quite fragile, so I am going to

try to run the prime tyre until the end of the session, if we can. So,

Perez being told by his engineer at McLaren that the soft tyre is

looking fragile, in other words, only good for 3-5 laps, so they are

going to run the medium tyre, which he is on at the moment, through to

the end of the session, routing a super long run on the medium

tyre... Something flying off Maldonado's right front corner

there. Or was that just my imagination? Yes, absolutely, the

tyre has now deflated. It looked like one of the brake discs was

glowing bright orange. He has now pulled over. The right front tyre on

that Williams has deflated. He is on the outside of the pit lane entry.

Whatever it was that went inside the right front wheel, it looks like it

has brought him to stop. Of course, they had a problem in Japan as well,

so it looks like Williams have got something to deal with. Lets see if

we can work out what happened. Anyway, I am sure an explanation

will be forthcoming. Gary Anderson, you are watching these pictures, do

you have any thoughts at these stage? I think the right front wheel

that was missing. It was wobbling around a bit, the right front. And

then the wheel is loose, and it is running on the brake duct. It got

warm through on the inside, and that has let the air out of it. It just

wears through, and then, there is no air. They got fined 60,000 euros in

Japan for a rear wheel coming off. It is an expensive business letting

wheel nuts come off. There you can seek it bouncing down the road. The

other camera followed the wheel nut, as you say. As you say, the

cameraman, following it like somebody at the open, following a

golf ball. There is a little bit of bodywork, a bit of detritus, from

the car, also down there. Maldonado is off the line which takes you into

the pit lane entry, so he is not a risk to anybody. But clearly the

car, with a punctured right front, and no wheel nut on the right front

corner, is not the easiest thing for these marshals to move. There is

quite a lot of experience in this part of the world. Eric Silberman,

you are a former Marshall, and the volunteer sect is so vital to

motorsport, tens of thousands of them who do it at all of the Grand

Prix, and they are pretty well trained here in India.

It is good. You get people from more historically motorsport countries

coming over. A lot of marshals from the UK and other European countries

to be split amongst the locals to give them experience because you

can't expect these guys to know it all. As you say, a vital role and of

course, the forklift truck. A sign that something has gone wrong.

Just looking at the long runs here. It looks as though the frary is

holding on to the -- Ferrari is holding on to the softer tyre well.

Mark Webber is a shade faster on the medium tyre than Alonso is on the

soft, but Alonso's soft tyre, lap times not dissimilar to Sebastian

Vettel's. We have seen Ferrari be gentle on the tyres as we know the

Lotus is and the Force India and crucial to Alonso's outcome this

weekend will be his performance in qualifying. It looks like he might

have a reasonably strong first stint in the race, but from what we are

seeing so far, Gary Anderson, Maldonado walks back into the pits.

It looks like we are going to have a two stop race and it looks like the

medium tyre is going to be the tyre that the teams will favour. They

want to get rid of this soft tyre as quickly as they can? If you go back

to last year's race, Sebastian Vettel went to lap 33 before he

pitted to put on the medium tyre. He did 33 laps on it. That put him in a

good position at the end of the race if he needed to have better tyres to

fight anyone off. These tyres are the soft tyre and we are seeing them

struggle at 13, 14 and 15. I agree with you, looking at the lap times

there is going to be the soft tyre and the m he had stadium -- and the

medium, medium. That will make it interesting

because we have seen Daniel Ricciardo Harting on the -- starting

on the harder compound and running a long first stint and it worked well

for him if he hadn't the penalty he got in Japan. This looks like a

weekend where we may see people trying that because the tyres are

the way they are. If you qualify 11th or behind, you could be in for

an interesting race if you can run a longish first stint on the medium

tyre? You are right, it would have worked for Daniel if the Stewarts

hadn't taken the unusual decision over his brilliant overtaking a move

around the outside at 130 R. Not that you are bitter? Not at all!

Thank you for joining us. It is fantastic to get your views

particularly on Daniil Kvyat who I am going to have to fun pronouncing

that! Kvyat! It is easier said than done! We are unlikely to see times

improving because we have had the single lap qualifying simulations

earlier on in the sessions. We have 16 minutes remaining in this

session. And we have got a member of the Lotus team joining us. A

challenging day from the driver's point of view. Looking after the

soft tyres is going to be a huge thing this weekend. You are the

reserve driver for the Lotus team and you guys are the best at looking

after the tyres. Do you sense an opportunity here? Thank you. Yes, it

can be interesting for us to be honest because we saw so many

drivers and teams they had a problem with the front tyres blistering. So

it can be something really good for us because we did the first stint

with softer and we simulated very well. It was one of the quickest. It

seems it is a great opportunity if the cars can qualify in the top two

rows, we will have a satisfactory weekend.

The tyre is 14 laps old. There is Lewis' radio.

TEAM RADIO: We need to make sure we get the stint length on this. Make

sure you look after them. The pace is very good. Hamilton

running on the softer compound tyres. Let's look at his long run.

It is in the mid-1.42 range. It is can comparable with the Ferrari of

Alonso. It looks like Hamilton is getting reasonable behaviour out of

the soft tyres. What are your guys doing? You have Grosjean on the

medium tyre and Raikkonen on the soft. He has only started a soft

tyre run so it is fairly early days. 14 minutes remaining on the clock.

He is amazing though, Raikkonen, in terms of the way he is able to drive

these tyres and look after them in a race situation? Yes. He is something

special. You know sometimes during the weekend he is not really there.

Like sometimes in free practise he is not performing well, but in the

race he is always in the top five. One victory already this year. He is

something special. He can manage the tyres in a way that other drivers

cannot. He is extremely fast and quick in the last part of the race

with really low fuel. Yes, he is a big talent and I think we can earn

some good results with him this week if the situation remains like this.

Grosjean has been taking a the fight to the Red Bulls particularly the

Korea, Japan leg. In qualifying, but Kimi has not been at the party on

Saturday in terms of the single lap qualifying. What's the problem

there? We don't know. Yes, he is struggling in terms of performance

in quali compared to Romain Grosjean. He got the last free

quali, he was twice in third position. Grosjean is competitive

and Raikkonen lost performance, but at the end of the race he is always

there. We are scoring good points and it seems that our team is in a

good shape to recover points from Mercedes and to Mercedes and

Ferrari. Hamilton is a great talent and it will be easy for us to beat

them. In Suzuka when we were really competitive on Saturday, one of the

Mercedes beat us. So we will try to stay in front of them because it is

important for us to be in the top and to fight with Red Bull.

TEAM RADIO: You want to continue. Raikkonen told to keep going for as

long as the tyres have got performance left in them and it is

these moments where Raikkonen is learning. This is where he is doing

his homework for the race as are all the drivers in terms of when the

tyre starts to go and how to keep it the right side of the overheating

and the right side of the graining too much? Yes. He then comes the

race and yes, he is trying to understand it and I think he learned

a way to use it for Sunday sometimes. The reserve driver for

the Lotus Formula One Team is with us. Lotus are only 33 points away

from third place. They are fourth at the moment. They are 33 points away.

Ferrari on 297 points and Mercedes on 267. If Red Bull aren't in it, it

would be a good scrap. But they are in it. Although no one is focussed

on Vettel requiring the fifth place finish whatever Alonso does this

weekend, only a fifth place would be enough to give Vettel the world

title for the fourth year running. It is the case that if Red Bull

leave here with 129 points margin or more over the second placed team

they will be constructors champions for the fourth year in a row. A

spark blowing out of Kimi Raikkonen's car. We are into the

final ten minutes of this session. What is the feeling in the Lotus

Team about this circuit here in India? Is it one of the popular ones

amongst the team? The layout of the circuit is really nice and the

drivers like it, but to be honest, the atmosphere of the great event

like England or za in -- Monza in Italy, you miss the atmosphere from

the people around. They are not really experts about motorsport, but

you know for us, coming to India is a great experience and a way to

improve a better situation in New deli.

The English are always partial to Indian food. Some of the best Indian

restaurants are in England. Do you like Italian food? Sometimes a bit

too spicy for the he racing driver. You have all got tell cat

constitutions, haven't you? Fernando Alonso there. That looks

good, doesn't it? I don't think it is good enough to beat Vettel, but

yes, maybe a top five position, yes. It is interesting that Alonso seems

to have struggled relative to Massa. The same thing happened at the end

of last season. Any sense what that is down to? We have to consider that

it is not possible to change the set-up between Saturday and Sunday.

Sometimes some of the top drivers and Raikkonen is also like this, try

to make a set-up that is performing better for the race. So sometimes

they suffer more on Saturday, but they destroy their team-mate on

Sunday. So we have to consider that maybe Alonso Saturday is thinking

more for the race distance. It is true. If you look at Raikkonen

Singapore and Korea. It is arguable that he would have got a better

result if he started further up the grid because Vettel was home and

hosed you cans wasn't -- wasn't he? TEAM RADIO: This doesn't look great

for Nico on the tyre. The Nico Rosberg car isn't looking too good

on the medium compound tyre. And so they want to stick Hamilton on to it

so he can see how it works for him. The lap times are erratic for

Rosberg. He is banging in laps in the high 1.31s, but also 35s and 34s

a mixed in. Mercedes are not happy with the balance of the car on the

medium tyre. It look like Hamilton was doing OK laps on the soft. So

they will be reasonably pleased and cautious welcome for the tyre. Some

people are having more problems than the Mercedes are having. It is

something that they have to take care of because we have to consider

if the soft tyre goes away so quickly, we will see a race where

more or less everyone will use medium compound tyres for most of

the race. So it is extremely important to be fast and quick on

these type of tyres. It is a 60 lap race on Sunday. Gary Anderson is in

the pit lane at Ferrari? You can see the rear tyre, you can see these

marks. These are called blisters. With wheelspin the rear tyres are

overheating. The front tyres have grained. They have gone through the

graining stage. They have grained. Three or four or five laps later

they clean up. At the same time the rear tyres deteriorate. It is the

blistering which will reduce your performance as far as lap times are

concerned. That's what you call degradation. Here, it is like Korea,

we have everything happening to the tyres. When you go to four or five

laps, as the graining clears up. It will be a head scratcher on Sunday

afternoon. That's what you were saying earlier.

It will be good. It will be challenging for the teams and the

drivers as well. The best thing to have is a fast car because you can

deal with every situation. I guess you guys at Lotus feel you have got

the second fastest car out there, second or third fastest? Second or

third fastest. Sometimes in qualifying, they are faster than us,

but we are really on top. If you have a fast car during the race and

you are worried about degradation, you back off and conserve the tyres

and go longer. The trick is to be fast.

Adrian Newey up on the timing stand. Next year, we have the introduction

of completely new technology into Formula 1. Out goes the Gaskell 's

Lynn V8, in comes the 1.6 litre, hybrids turbo engine. -- gas

guzzling. About a third of the lap, the drivers will be able to use

their new energy recovery system, as opposed to the horsepower. It is

going to be fascinating. It will be Billy interesting, it is a massive

change. For the drivers, they will need to adapt on the drive inside,

and sometimes, the engineers, they speak about the consumption of the

engine, and some teams will struggle a bit in the last part of the race,

with the fuel. And so the drivers will have to manage the fuel

consumption, which is not easy. Absolutely. They have all got heavy

right feet! That is another thing they have to manage. It is going to

go down from about 150 kilos of fuel, which they currently use to

complete A303 's, down to about 100 kilowatts of those -- down to about

100 kilograms. That is a huge reduction. It is a message being

sent out by the sport, in terms of fuel consumption, and also there is

the question of reliability, with 21, 22 races next year, with only

five engines, potentially. It is not so much the actual power unit, the

engine itself, but it is the energy recovery system. I am not sure

anybody has managed to get those things to last that length of time.

So, we are probably going to see some unreliability coming back in,

and we have not seen that for quite a few years. Speaking to your

opposite number at Ferrari, Pedro De la Russa, who has been on the

simulator at Ferrari looking at driving techniques for saving fuel

last year, he tells me, there are all kinds of things you can do in

terms of the way you drive the car, the way you roll into the corners

and stuff, you can save a lot of fuel. Are you looking at the same

things? Yes, you are right. And it seems, just to release the throttle

at the end of the straight, before the braking point, you can save fuel

that way as well. And usually, that is the way that permits you to use

less fuel, without losing performance. Sometimes you can

regulate the throttle on except, and try to have some tricks, but you

lose performance, which is not what we want. So, it is important to be

more measured on the throttle, really, rather than hitting it too

hard? Yes, because with these engines, sometimes there will be

much more power just at the beginning of the throttle

application, so for the driver, it will be extremely important to be a

bit more gradual with the throttle. Which sort of drivers do you think

it will favour? Always the same, the best drivers, Hamilton, Vettel,

Alonso, Raikkonen. Always the same, do not worry. The fastest driver at

the end will have the victory. The sport is made by drivers. I could

not agree more, although I think your guy, Grosjean, seems to be

improving a lot, I have been impressed with him in Japan last

time out. 30 seconds remaining on the clock, at the end of this second

free practice session. But was Davide Valsecchi, the reserve driver

for the Lotus Formula 1 team. Also down in the pit lane, Gary Anderson

and Jennie Gow, throughout this session. It looks like Sebastian

Vettel is going to end up on top of the time sheets yet again, as he was

this morning, and as he was in every practice session last year. Can he

make it a 100% record around this track? Who knows when we will be

coming back to India? The chequered flag is now out at the end of this

session. There is certainly not going to be an Indian Grand Prix in

2014. There is some talk about it possibly coming back in the early

part of the season in 2015. That was Mark Webber being told, tried to

lift a bit more in turn eight to help you through turn nine. Just

looking at Alonso's Long Run times, they look pretty good. I think

Ferrari will be quite pleased. They are fifth fastest, which is pretty

much where Alonso has been for the last three or four years, in terms

of pace. It is a bit more difficult to tell with Raikkonen, as it always

is with Raikkonen. As Davide Valsecchi was telling us, he does

his own thing, really. But we know what Raikkonen is up to when we get

to the race on Sunday. Particularly in the last 10-15 laps, he tends to

always be there. This is a circuit where a Sebastian Vettel tends to

have the edge over his team-mate, Mark Webber. Webber seems to have

the edge at places like Silverstone and Suzuka, faces with the

high-speed corners that he really loves. The tight, right-handed,

second gear corners, that is where Vettel makes a big difference. I

think Vettel looks a bit unbeatable. Also, when he has the chance to be

close to his team-mate, the team tries to do something to help

Vettel, and we saw last weekend, in Suzuka, where Webber was strong

enough maybe to win the race, but there was a change of strategy, and

Vettel, we know that he is a great champion, and with a little help

from Red Bull, he got another great victory. And I think it will be the

same story here. Vettel for sure is the favourite for the race. What was

interesting about Suzuka was Roman Grosjean getting in front of him at

the start, which made things more interesting and more challenging for

him, which forced Red Bull to switch strategies. Hamilton, when he got a

puncture, was also in front of Vettel. If he had not had the

puncture, it would've been a very different ways, and a very

interesting race, and I think in that situation, Vettel could well

have got moved onto three spots. Yes, Hamilton got a really great

start, and at the first corner, he could have been a real challenger,

because they were leading. Let's take stop of what has happened this

afternoon here in free practice in Delhi. Once again, it is a 1-2 for

the Red Bull team, with Roman Grosjean once again taking the fight

to the Red Bulls, just like he did in Japan. Hamilton again, pretty

strong on the single lap, in fourth. Alonso, encouraging race performance

for them. If they can find a qualifying lap tomorrow, he could be

in the hunt for the podium. Maldonado, 16th, he had a wheel nuts

detaching, and they could be in trouble for that, after what

happened in Japan. So, Davide Valsecchi, can you sum up for us,

reserve driver at Lotus, what we think we have seen here today in

free practice? Yes, it was an interesting day, to be honest just

it seems that Red Bull will be really difficult to beat. It seems

that Mercedes will have the chance to be on the second row in

qualification. It seems that Lotus can fight at least for the podium

during the Sunday race. The only team which seems to have dropped a

bit in terms of performance compared with last week is Sauber. They were

seventh and eighth at the end of the race in Suzuka, and here, they are

really out of the top ten. It will not be easy for them to be in the

points. And encouraging signs for Lotus, with Roman Grosjean up in

third place, as he was in Japan last time out. Are you expecting a

challenge from him? Yes, Raikkonen our leader at the moment, 100%.

Davide Valsecchi, thank you so much for joining us in our commentary

position, in the centre of the paddock here in Delhi. That is it

from Practice 2. Another Red Bull 1-2, another very interesting

session in many ways, not least in terms of the left front tyres. A

lots to think about for the teams, ahead of qualifying tomorrow and the

race on Sunday. ahead of qualifying tomorrow and the

race on Ominous signs, Gary Anderson, Sebastian Vettel, fastest

once again... Yes, you do not have to wear glasses for that one. I do

not think it is all over yet. It might not be as easy as it was last

year. I think Mercedes are reasonably strong, and there is

Roman Grosjean as well. But the Red Bulls do look as though they have

got a reasonable handle both on the qualifying as well as on the race

setup. You would be a full not to bet on them. But it is a situation

where you have just got to do the best job you can. If the Red Bulls

are in front of you, so be it. You cannot change that. It is always

interesting seeing the pictures of the drivers walking down, there is a

lot to talk about at this stage of the weekend. Yes, they have done a

bit of a run as far as qualifying is concerned, and also in race setup,

but there will be some changes going on on the cards tonight. You have to

see how the tyres are lasting, and then you may have to compromise on

the ultimate lap pace just a little bit, to make sure that you are

durable. That was what this afternoon's session was about.

Tomorrow goes so quickly, it is just a one-hour practice section,

session, and then you are in to qualifying. Christian Horner, we saw

you on the pit wall looking pretty happy, are you as happy as you look?

We are always happy. No, I think it has been a positive day for us. We

have worked through our programme, had a good look at the tyres, which

seem to be fairly contrasting, but it has been a positive day. Just

talk us through those tyres, because it looked like a lot of graining was

going on, and they are not going to last very long, especially on the

front left. It is quite aggressive on the front left around it is the

opposite of Korea, very similar but the opposite way around. Tyres will

be playing a key role in this race. We will be doing our homework this

afternoon, having a look at the two compounds, and making strategy

choices for Sunday. Will it be challenging on Sunday because of

that? Yes, you probably could not have two more diametrically opposed

tyres. Do you still believe Sebastian Vettel can win his fourth

straight World Championship here? We are not really thinking about that.

Our focus is very much on the race. We have got ourselves into a great

position in the championships, but we are focused on getting the most

out of this weekend, and then, the Championship tables, they will take

care of themselves. Is the main threat Lotus this weekend? Lotus and

Ferrari have looked strong. Mercedes certainly will be up there as well.

Take your pick. Thanks very much, Christian Horner. Gary, it seems

that whilst engines are noisy, tyres are troublesome, so I we expecting

more problems for Pirelli? In reality, it is going to be a two

stop race. I do not think it is problems for Pirelli. We will see

the left front graining after four or five laps. We will see the right

front looking a bit horrible, but that is actually rather getting

picked up. And when they change the medium tyre, it will be a bit more

uniform. But I think the length of life of the soft tyre is going to

lead them into a two stop race, for sure. How much will this circuit

evolved over the course of the weekend? It does mature as the

weekend goes by. But the one thing which will help a little bit is that

each driver goes into qualifying with three sets of soft tyres and

three sets of medium tyres. They will use the three sets of soft

tyres in qualifying, and as the tyre gets more mature, it ends up on

Sunday a little bit harder, which makes it a bit more durable, but it

is not enough to make it into a one-stop race, I am sure about

that. Some drivers were struggling with grip, Amy Raikkonen was the

first to have a little spin out on track, tell us what was going on

here. Again, with the rear brakes, you are recharging the KERS package

as you come into the corner, and it is very easy to overload the rear

tyre. You are coming up a blind hill, trying to turn into the apex

which you cannot see until the last minute. It is no big problem, it is

just one of those situations where it is better to do it on Friday in

practice than it is on Sunday afternoon. Now is the time to make

mistakes. Sadly, someone who made a mistake quite recently, and again

today, were the Williams team, with their wheel nuts. Yes, we saw it

going out of the pits, and the next thing we saw was a right front wheel

nut coming off. It goes on to the brake caliper, cutting through the

rim itself. There is supposed to be a safety device to stop this

happening. A sickly, that wheel nuts would not be able to fall off. --

basically. That was the real problem. It should not be able to

fall off. They had a rear wheel coming off, and they got fined

60,000 euros. This time, it was not the rear wheel, but it was the wheel

nut. This is the Red Bull garage, and we can see on the end of the

axle, these little toggles which stick out, they are sprung loaded,

and when you put the wheel nut on there, they come back out, so the

wheel nut, if it comes off, it should jam up behind those little

toggles. This came into existence because of Mark Webber having the

wheel nut coming off in the pit lane and heating a cameraman. It is a

safety requirement, and Williams seem to be not complying with the

regulation. Lets see what Mark Webber had to say.

Well, Mark, one and two in both sessions today. How did you see it?

We are going OK on long and shortish runs. Normal stuff on Friday. We can

talk as much as we want, but it is the race that counts. Yeah, we have

got some work to do tonight. Last year it was a one stop race. On

the evidence of today, do you think we are going to see something

different on Sunday? It is not impossible. Can you enlighten us

anymore? There was a lot of graining on the softer of the two compounds?

Yes, we are having to go through everything. Practise is different to

the race. The one stop can come into play, but who knows until race day

We have to go with the pack, the pace which hopefully is us and we

can control the race from there. This racetrack isn't used much

during the year. Talk us through the race conditions today? Better than

last year and the previous years. The pit lane was in better shape so

we could get down to descent work today. The track conditions were

pretty good. Mark Webber's biggest problem will

be Sebastian Vettel. Sebastian Vettel for the win? Yes, I think so.

The Mercedes won't be far away. Thank you. If we take a look around.

What's Charles Pic's brother. He is in the support race. It is not all

about Formula One, but it is about Formula One on the BBC this weekend.

You can see free practise three with me on BBC Two at 6.25am.

If you are feeling lazy, we cater for you too. There is a replay.

Sebastian Vettel certainly dealt the first blows today. Thanks for

watching. Bye-bye.