The Spanish Grand Prix - Practice 2

:01:10. > :01:15.for the second of our practice sessions. The driver is getting

:01:15. > :01:21.ready for this one. If you caught the action this morning, it was

:01:21. > :01:28.difficult for the teams, the track started wet and then it dried. They

:01:28. > :01:38.have got a lot of updates to test here, so this session will be really

:01:38. > :01:44.

:01:44. > :01:54.The cars are out on the circuit, Sebastian Vettel, Sergio Perez and

:01:54. > :02:00.

:02:00. > :02:05.Nico Hulkenberg, the second free already, more are joining them, and

:02:05. > :02:10.a nicer situation for them this afternoon, with the sun and sing off

:02:10. > :02:15.the paintwork of the world Champion's Red Bull. Sebastian

:02:15. > :02:19.Vettel has never been on pole position on this circuit. That is

:02:19. > :02:29.strange, given his dominance in qualifying generally. This circuit

:02:29. > :02:32.sorts the men from the boys when it comes to a dynamic efficiency. He

:02:32. > :02:38.will hope that he can put that right this weekend. The rear wing pops

:02:38. > :02:48.open. The first flying lap of the weekend. One thing about this

:02:48. > :02:51.weekend, you talk about the ERS zone, it is in two places. It is on

:02:51. > :02:56.the ninth corner as well as on the finishing straight. A double

:02:56. > :03:05.opportunity. But most of the overtaking will be done on the

:03:05. > :03:12.straight, the difficulty will be to be close enough to utilise the

:03:12. > :03:19.straight-line speed. Sebastian Vettel coming through the corner

:03:19. > :03:25.now. Mark Webber is on track as well. Sebastian Vettel opens the

:03:25. > :03:31.TRS. This is a difficult point, this is where it was wet this morning.

:03:31. > :03:35.But now, every thing will be back to the status quo. This morning,

:03:35. > :03:43.Fernando Alonso ahead of Felipe Massa. Jean-Eric Vergne was third,

:03:43. > :03:53.Romain Grosjean fourth, Adrian Sutil fifth, Lewis Hamilton, Al Tariq. Us,

:03:53. > :03:53.

:03:53. > :04:03.and Kimi Reich and in. It looks like the headwind down the pit straight.

:04:03. > :04:04.

:04:04. > :04:09.What are you expecting to see this afternoon? In terms of long runs and

:04:09. > :04:14.how the teams will play out? teams want to get information on the

:04:14. > :04:18.changes that they have made, the first time they will have them on

:04:18. > :04:22.track in reality from the last Grand Prix. They will need to understand

:04:22. > :04:32.them, how they affect the car balance, how the wind affect it, as

:04:32. > :04:33.

:04:33. > :04:38.it blows the car over different areas of the circuit. We are looking

:04:38. > :04:43.at the Professor of this, Alain Prost. After that, once they get a

:04:43. > :04:49.balance, they will go for long runs, as they missed this morning, so they

:04:49. > :04:55.need the information in the back. Alain Prost talking to the owner of

:04:55. > :05:00.Lotus. He is sporting a beard, I do not know if that is a sign of a

:05:00. > :05:09.midlife crisis! You are sporting one as well! That is definitely a

:05:09. > :05:16.midlife crisis! He is still fit, he went on one of the climbs of the

:05:16. > :05:21.Tour de France with Mark Webber and beat him. A lot of work to be done

:05:21. > :05:27.for Jenson Button. He was complaining that the car was 2.2

:05:28. > :05:33.this morning. He needs the car balanced as he wants it to be.

:05:33. > :05:42.also likes a stable rear end. He likes to know what is happening with

:05:42. > :05:46.it. This morning, he did not do any kind laps, it was explorer tree. We

:05:46. > :05:56.will have to wait and see what it is like in the dry. The fastest time in

:05:56. > :06:09.

:06:09. > :06:14.only in the early stages. This is Sebastian Vettel. RADIO: You are

:06:14. > :06:24.rating the brake pedal. Writing the break had ill, so he is resting his

:06:24. > :06:25.

:06:25. > :06:32.foot on it. He has got a bit of extra brake pressure on there. You

:06:32. > :06:39.do not feel it, because you are thinking about the throttle, but he

:06:39. > :06:49.will be aware of that, the fuel economy, and it does not help you on

:06:49. > :07:01.

:07:02. > :07:07.the brakes. Most of the runners are Vettel. It is a harder tyre than at

:07:07. > :07:13.the start of the season, it is more similar to the 2012 harder tyre.

:07:13. > :07:18.That was preferred here last year. It is an important change in terms

:07:18. > :07:22.of how this weekend will unfold. There has been a fair bit of

:07:22. > :07:28.lobbying behind the scenes in terms of Red Bull wanting to see a

:07:28. > :07:32.change, they wanted the whole range to be changed. Are they satisfied by

:07:32. > :07:39.the change that has been made? Probably not, but every team will

:07:39. > :07:45.fight for what works for their car. Pirelli have a difficult job, they

:07:45. > :07:49.are trying to manage the teams in a balanced capacity. Red Bull are

:07:49. > :07:59.struggling in a certain area. This is a hard circuit for tyres, long

:07:59. > :08:03.

:08:03. > :08:07.corners. The third turning is a long corner, high-speed, so it is tough

:08:07. > :08:17.and the harder compounds are better. Let's check in with Gary Anderson at

:08:17. > :08:19.

:08:19. > :08:27.Lotus. I am keeping an eye on Kimi Reich and on. But he is back in the

:08:27. > :08:32.car now. They changed something on the braking, he might not have been

:08:32. > :08:42.happy with it, but he should be all right very soon. I will keep my eye

:08:42. > :08:44.

:08:44. > :08:51.on it. Lewis Hamilton the fastest at the moment. Then, Mikko Rosberg. It

:08:51. > :08:58.is impressive how Valtteri Bottas has fared so far, he has matched his

:08:58. > :09:04.team-mate in qualifying. They have an equal best result so far of 11th,

:09:04. > :09:11.I am surprised by that. Pastor Maldonado is one of the quicker

:09:11. > :09:17.drivers in form and one. Has he done a good job, Valtteri Bottas? Yes, he

:09:17. > :09:23.was highly acclaimed before he got into Formula 1. Also, the Williams

:09:23. > :09:29.is struggling, so it is sometimes difficult to extract more than the

:09:29. > :09:35.basic speed and balance. If the car gets a bit better and faster, you

:09:35. > :09:40.could maybe see Pastor Maldonado getting more out of it. But both

:09:40. > :09:44.drivers are first-rate it and struggling a bit now. Williams are

:09:44. > :09:48.looking for a big improvement in performance. We will hear from Gary

:09:48. > :09:56.over the course of the next 90 minutes, not only about the updates

:09:56. > :09:58.on the Williams car, but on all of the cars throughout the field.

:09:59. > :10:05.Looking at what they have done, how much effort has gone into it. But

:10:05. > :10:10.generally, it has been ten to 12 weeks in preparation. That is how

:10:10. > :10:19.much work they put in. Let's catch up with Gary. Just watching Jenson

:10:19. > :10:25.Button, he has not got a new front wing on, but he has got the side

:10:25. > :10:32.pods, they are more curvaceous. cling wrap the parts underneath a

:10:32. > :10:37.bit better. They are tighter to the exhaust system and radiators. That

:10:37. > :10:41.is to get more airflow over the car, and it helps the back of the car

:10:41. > :10:48.produce more downforce. McLaren have been struggling this year, that

:10:48. > :10:54.there is a lot of development which is race to race. They have got to

:10:54. > :10:57.identify their problem, so I classify this as a race to raise

:10:57. > :11:06.development, rather than fixing the problem. They have a new front

:11:06. > :11:11.wing. It has not been on the car yet. One hour and 19 minutes

:11:11. > :11:17.remaining, Felipe Massa making his way into the pits. He is waiting to

:11:17. > :11:23.his team. He is doing a pitstop practice, getting the mechanics out

:11:23. > :11:28.of the way. He does not want to hit them. This is Fernando Alonso doing

:11:28. > :11:32.the same thing. They do that so they get an accurate idea of how long it

:11:32. > :11:37.takes to come into the pit lane and rejoin again, because in terms of

:11:37. > :11:40.the race strategy, that is an important thing. It has not changed

:11:40. > :11:50.since last year, but they like to make sure they know how much time

:11:50. > :11:55.they are taking out. It is important to know your pit lane D. But also,

:11:55. > :12:01.if they stop in the pit box and they cannot accelerate without going out,

:12:01. > :12:05.they need to go into the garage, so by not stopping, they can continue.

:12:06. > :12:10.It is the thing about laying rubber down, because the wheelspin is to

:12:10. > :12:17.get grip to maximise their acceleration after the stops.

:12:17. > :12:24.look at the pitstops, how they have evolved in this mirror, especially

:12:24. > :12:33.this year, in Bahrain, the entire field their fastest pitstops were

:12:33. > :12:37.covered by 1.5 seconds, and the top four teams, 0.25 seconds difference.

:12:37. > :12:42.It is as competitive in the pit lane as it is for the drivers on the

:12:42. > :12:50.racetrack. We have got a spinner, one of the Mercedes. Lewis

:12:51. > :12:57.Hamilton. It is in the final sector. The 12 corner. Normally taken at 140

:12:57. > :13:03.miles an hour. He is lifting the car over the curb as he goes around, so

:13:03. > :13:10.hopefully we can take another look at what happened. It is a harmless

:13:10. > :13:19.spin, he seemed to lose the back of it. When he then rejoined, quite a

:13:19. > :13:25.bit of wheelspin. Going over the curb is the worst part. Trying to

:13:25. > :13:33.cool the car, because there is no airflow going through the radiators.

:13:33. > :13:39.The engines are temperature-sensitive. He comes

:13:39. > :13:44.through and halfway through he loses the rear. It is harmless. Before he

:13:44. > :13:49.gets back, he has to get air through the car to call everything, so when

:13:49. > :13:54.it stops, it is not heat saturated. That was interesting, it does not

:13:54. > :14:02.look like the kind of thing that would do anything wrong, but it

:14:02. > :14:06.shows how slippery the track is. back of the car steps out on him.

:14:06. > :14:13.is just that transient phase, and if the rear is light, it can come back

:14:13. > :14:19.around. It was reasonably harmless. Nico Rosberg from Lewis Hamilton

:14:19. > :14:25.from Fernando Alonso from Daniel Ricciardo. One hour and 16 minutes

:14:25. > :14:32.of the session remaining. This is an outlet for Kimi Reich and on, the

:14:32. > :14:38.2007 world champion. A lot going on at Lotus, the technical director is

:14:38. > :14:43.moving on. He has left the team. The man taking over is a highly regarded

:14:43. > :14:48.engineer, but the outgoing technical director is one of the great

:14:48. > :14:56.innovators of Formula 1. Which team will he go on to? Ferrari or Red

:14:56. > :15:00.Bull? You can see a strong case for many teams. It is not McLaren, and

:15:00. > :15:06.they do not have a desk for him at Mercedes. It seems we have an

:15:06. > :15:12.engineer Arms race going on. Ferrari and Mercedes building a brains trust

:15:12. > :15:20.of top engineers. The hot money is on him going to Ferrari, but I could

:15:20. > :15:25.see him going to Red Bull in the long term. I think a few teams would

:15:25. > :15:28.like his expertise and knowledge, and he has built a good car at

:15:28. > :15:32.Lotus, particularly bearing in mind the sponsorship money they have got

:15:32. > :15:37.coming in. OK, they have got Grosjean and Raikkonen, very strong

:15:37. > :15:40.drivers, but they have got a very good job in harnessing that and

:15:40. > :15:45.taking it into dating that is struggling in some areas. I am sure

:15:45. > :15:49.he will do a good job. Continued speculation as to where he might be

:15:49. > :15:54.going, let's talk about the impact his departure will have on the Lotus

:15:54. > :15:58.team, winners in Australia, a double podium in Bahrain, operating on just

:15:58. > :16:03.over half the budget of Red Bull and Ferrari, and to be doing that is

:16:03. > :16:07.quite an achievement. How much will they feel his loss? There are a lot

:16:07. > :16:10.of people in the team, Kimi Raikkonen said he did not know what

:16:10. > :16:14.the loss would be, and it will take a little bit of time for that to

:16:14. > :16:18.roll-out. Nick Chester, I actually worked with him in the previous

:16:18. > :16:25.guise of Lotus, when it was called Renault, and he has developed

:16:25. > :16:30.through and been promoted up the ladder, but he is very experienced,

:16:30. > :16:35.he is a good guy and a safe pair of hands. Raikkonen third, faster still

:16:35. > :16:40.in the first sector of his next lap. All of the front-runners are

:16:40. > :16:45.still running on the harder compound tyre. We will see some of the faster

:16:45. > :16:51.tyres later, the medium compound, on which they will do qualifying runs.

:16:51. > :16:57.Generally speaking, free practice 2 is an opportunity to do a qualifying

:16:57. > :17:00.simulation run, not normally low fuel, they carry between ten and 20

:17:00. > :17:03.kilograms depending from team to team, but it gives them an accurate

:17:04. > :17:08.idea of what their qualifying phase will be. Then they load the car up

:17:08. > :17:15.with fuel, some go with the same amount of fuel they will start the

:17:15. > :17:21.race with, 140 kilos worth, others go for a medal race fuel load, 70-85

:17:21. > :17:25.kg, to get a sense of the balance of the car through the middle of the

:17:25. > :17:28.Grand Prix. All the teams play it differently, which is why you get

:17:28. > :17:32.different views on what happens on a Friday, but generally speaking,

:17:32. > :17:35.although everybody says you cannot read too much into Friday, they know

:17:35. > :17:39.where they are, they know their patterns and they have got an

:17:39. > :17:44.accurate picture, the teams, where they stand at the end of Friday.

:17:44. > :17:49.Yes, and one guy that has got a very accurate picture is Gary Anderson,

:17:49. > :17:53.down there at Ferrari. Looking at the back of the car, Alonso's car is

:17:53. > :18:00.up on the standards, and the area of the floor just in front of the rear

:18:00. > :18:05.tyre, what happens is you want to make it seal as close to the tyre as

:18:05. > :18:11.possible, put down force. That is especially true under braking, if

:18:11. > :18:14.they can seal that gap, not letting any airflow through. I saw Red Bull,

:18:14. > :18:19.they were grinding their flaw in that area as well. Sometimes it gets

:18:19. > :18:24.to a circuit and have to have a little bit higher rear right height,

:18:24. > :18:27.and then the floor touches the tyre. If it does that, it will damage the

:18:27. > :18:34.tyre and damage the floor itself. It is quite interesting, in past years,

:18:34. > :18:38.we used to have a replaceable panel in five millimetre increments, but

:18:38. > :18:45.only Lotus have that situation on their car at the moment. It is all

:18:45. > :18:50.carbon fibre the guys have got the grinder and the vacuum cleaner.

:18:50. > :18:54.said about rear stability, you need a very stable rear into these fast

:18:54. > :18:57.corners to get the confidence to be able to lean on the car and get the

:18:57. > :19:02.right loading on the front - is that your experience as a designer as

:19:02. > :19:06.well? Yes, any time you give the driver confidence, he will find more

:19:06. > :19:10.than that aerodynamic peak that was predicted of a 10th of a second. If

:19:10. > :19:17.the driver knows what the car is doing and that he has got

:19:17. > :19:23.comfortable cornering... Moving around, I have got my footrest, the

:19:23. > :19:26.more I push it... Just to finish what I was saying, if you can give

:19:26. > :19:30.the driver confidence to turn into the corner quicker, as far as the

:19:30. > :19:38.rear end of the car is concerned, he will give you back more than a 10th

:19:38. > :19:41.of a second. Thank you very much for that, Gary, one hour and ten minutes

:19:41. > :19:46.of this second free practice still to go ahead of Sunday's Spanish

:19:46. > :19:51.Grand Prix from Barcelona, the fifth round of the Formula One world

:19:51. > :19:54.championship. Max Chilton comes into the Marussia pit, and we will get an

:19:54. > :19:58.update, of course, through the course of the session on what's new

:19:58. > :20:03.parts these different teams have brought to their cars. It has been a

:20:03. > :20:11.very strong start to the 20 13th season for the Marussia team. Let's

:20:11. > :20:14.catch up with Jennie Gow down at Mercedes. -- the 20 13th season.

:20:14. > :20:19.saw Lewis Hamilton having a bit of a spin earlier, they have checked out

:20:19. > :20:22.the car, a lot of attention going to the front right wing, they have

:20:22. > :20:26.taken some photos lying on their back, taking pictures of the wing to

:20:26. > :20:30.make sure there is no damage. It doesn't look like there is any

:20:30. > :20:34.problem, the suspension has checked out fine, hopefully they will send

:20:34. > :20:38.out very shortly. An interesting spin for Lewis Hamilton, the team

:20:38. > :20:41.was worried about the temperatures as a result of it, but it looks like

:20:41. > :20:45.the car is not damaged. It shows you how close the margins are, how hard

:20:45. > :20:48.they run the temperatures on these cars, and certainly very warm indeed

:20:48. > :20:53.if it sits around with the engine running for any length of time

:20:53. > :20:59.without air passing through the radiators. Valtteri Bottas is on a

:20:59. > :21:01.lap, working his way towards turn nine, 160 mph right-hander at the

:21:02. > :21:05.top of the hill, a difficult corner at the best of times, very important

:21:05. > :21:09.because it leads onto the back straight, but particularly difficult

:21:09. > :21:14.on a day like this with the wind blowing. These Formula One cars do

:21:14. > :21:18.not like sudden gusts of wind, do they? And also that corner is at the

:21:18. > :21:20.top of the hill, so it suddenly becomes exposed to the wind, and

:21:20. > :21:26.when you are turning into the corner, you have a different balance

:21:26. > :21:30.to what you had at the exit, pushing it out on the exit. You have to be a

:21:30. > :21:36.touch gavel at the start of this session, because that Astroturf will

:21:36. > :21:39.still be wet from this morning's rain. -- a touch gavel. We talk

:21:39. > :21:44.about the gusty wind here, and it drives the engineers man. One paper,

:21:44. > :21:48.this is the circuit they know best, they have been testing here for

:21:48. > :21:52.years. If you talk to an experienced Formula One engineer, they know

:21:52. > :21:56.every inch, all the hotels and restaurants, and they are fed up to

:21:56. > :22:00.the back teeth with coming here for many years! And yet they feel they

:22:00. > :22:04.know it and yet they do not know it because it is a strange place - the

:22:04. > :22:07.balance can change from morning to afternoon, they say that you can

:22:07. > :22:11.change nothing on the car, and one which is competitive in the morning

:22:12. > :22:16.can be uncompetitive in the afternoon. Why is that? It is

:22:16. > :22:23.temperature related a lot of the time, and you get situations, at

:22:24. > :22:26.9:30am on a test day in December or January, a perfect time to do a lap

:22:26. > :22:29.time. Then you will go back at 2pm with exactly the same car, brand-new

:22:29. > :22:34.tyres, and you cannot get within 1.5 seconds because the temperature has

:22:34. > :22:38.lifted, the car will understeer, you will use the tyre more, you will not

:22:38. > :22:43.get a fix is perfectly, and the time drags away all the way through the

:22:44. > :22:48.lap. Mark Webber goes fastest, and coming back on that, what makes it

:22:48. > :22:54.such a good track for testing, the combination of corners and different

:22:54. > :22:56.straights, but it must be difficult to get accurate data. Yes, it is,

:22:56. > :23:02.because it has got these changing circumstances. On the flip side, as

:23:02. > :23:05.you say, it has got high-speed, low speed, open corners, attraction,

:23:05. > :23:10.places where you need braking stability, a little bit of

:23:10. > :23:14.everything. A little pointer for those of you who like to think about

:23:14. > :23:17.these things, this final sector that Jean-Eric Vergne is in now is one of

:23:17. > :23:22.the most important on a lap, certainly in terms of lap time,

:23:22. > :23:25.where you can gain or lose the most time. It is slower and it is

:23:25. > :23:29.technical, but usually this race comes before Monaco, and it is a

:23:29. > :23:33.very good indicator of a car that will be quick at Monaco. Over this

:23:33. > :23:38.weekend, watch out for the sector times in sector three, and it will

:23:38. > :23:42.give you a read of who will be quick at Monaco in two week's time. Watch

:23:42. > :23:47.out for Mercedes! Exactly. I have had money on Hamilton or Rosberg to

:23:47. > :23:51.win Monaco from early in the season, they were quick last day, and I know

:23:51. > :23:55.that is proof of mopping, but they have a bit of DNA in them, these

:23:55. > :24:00.cars, even if they change something, the DNA carries over from year to

:24:00. > :24:04.year, and Hamilton and Rosberg are very quick around Monaco. Both are

:24:04. > :24:09.quite willing to throw a car around, and that is what you see in this

:24:09. > :24:13.last sector, as you know - you have the requirement for a positive front

:24:13. > :24:15.end, a car that will turn, then to be able to get on the power to

:24:15. > :24:18.accelerate through the long right-hander onto the start-finish

:24:18. > :24:23.straight, and that will be important in the race because it is a DRS

:24:23. > :24:28.zone. On board with Sergio Perez, running wide on the exit of turn

:24:28. > :24:32.nine, getting up on the curves at 160 mph in the McLaren, a lot of

:24:32. > :24:35.aggression at the wheel from the Mexican, lifting up some of that

:24:35. > :24:40.artificial grass, leaving a bit of silver bodywork, I'll put is not one

:24:40. > :24:44.of the more important pieces! A lot of the downforce on a Formula One

:24:44. > :24:49.car is generated from the floor, so you want to keep that as clean as

:24:49. > :24:58.you can. Going back to the whole Spain-Monaco comparison, qualifying

:24:58. > :24:59.has always been critically important here, only once in 22 years has a

:24:59. > :25:01.car that qualified outside the front row managed to win the race. I was

:25:01. > :25:05.talking to Alonso about this yesterday, and he said he things

:25:05. > :25:09.Monaco is the most important in terms of getting us on pole

:25:09. > :25:12.position, because of DRS, because of these Pirelli tyres, there are

:25:12. > :25:15.opportunities to win this race, even if you are not necessarily on the

:25:15. > :25:20.front row of the grid. He seems to think that this year front row will

:25:20. > :25:24.not be critical in Spain. Does that mean he is not confident of the

:25:24. > :25:28.front row? I would suggest he is probably right, Monaco is the

:25:28. > :25:34.hardest, there is no physical straight. Hulkenberg going wide on

:25:34. > :25:37.the same bit of Astroturf. But in reality, Alonso as got a good chance

:25:37. > :25:42.of the front row, no question, around the circuit, and it is

:25:42. > :25:45.possible to overtake. Interesting that we have seen Perez and

:25:45. > :25:49.Hulkenberg try to take a bit more out of turn nine, such an important

:25:49. > :25:54.corner, but where is the cut-off point? Where have they gone too far

:25:54. > :25:58.in that corner? When you lose time or the stewards say you have gone

:25:58. > :26:01.all four wheels over the white line. At the end of the day, you keep

:26:01. > :26:05.going until you start to slide and get wheelspin coming out of it, and

:26:05. > :26:09.that is the cut-off point from the driver's point of view. Sometimes

:26:09. > :26:13.the stewards have a different opinion. When you are here and you

:26:13. > :26:17.are able to stand, as I often do, I stand on the outside of the corner,

:26:17. > :26:25.and the speed as they come through there, appearing from under the

:26:25. > :26:27.hill, coming into view at enormous speed, 160 mph, you realise that if

:26:27. > :26:30.you get it wrong, that is a very large accident. It is a very quick

:26:30. > :26:35.corner, it is blind, you have massive commitment, U-turn in flat

:26:35. > :26:39.out, and if you get pushed understeer from wind or the car not

:26:39. > :26:43.reacting well, you have to take a lift and then get on the throttle to

:26:44. > :26:48.let it run out. You also have to be very good on the curves, so you're

:26:48. > :26:52.steering has to be straight so that it does not react and kick around

:26:52. > :26:56.underneath you. It is a tricky, tricky corner. Just over an hour to

:26:56. > :27:02.go in this free practice session, it is Webber from Vettel from Rosberg

:27:02. > :27:06.from Hamilton. Alonso is on a lap at the moment, citing past the

:27:06. > :27:10.Mercedes, this is going to be a quick lap from Alonso, the fastest

:27:10. > :27:14.of anyone in sector one. We will see to the end of this lap and then

:27:14. > :27:19.catch up with Gary Anderson, who has some news for us. Alonso has a Toro

:27:19. > :27:24.Rosso in the way, but how is the Ferrari looking? It looks very

:27:24. > :27:33.stable, very consistent. The Toro Rosso has moved out of the way,

:27:33. > :27:38.Alonso has a clean run down into turn ten, and he has -- he is 0.273

:27:38. > :27:44.ahead. This is the slow final sector, the cookie cutter corner,

:27:44. > :27:49.13, 14, lots of notchy right angled corners. These into 14 now, left,

:27:49. > :27:53.then snatching it right through 15, picking the speed up, letting the

:27:53. > :28:01.car run out wide, a big crowd here to see this mango pastas, and he has

:28:01. > :28:05.done it for the moment - 0.08 seconds ahead, Alonso is on top.

:28:05. > :28:09.Let's catch up now with Gary Anderson. Just to explain the tyres

:28:09. > :28:14.for Barcelona, the normal ties they will be using over the weekend are

:28:14. > :28:18.the harder tyre, the orange sidewall tyre, and also the soft tyre, the

:28:18. > :28:24.yellow sidewall tyre. Pirelli have brought a set of experimental hard

:28:24. > :28:27.tyres here for every team, so each driver has a set of tyres that has

:28:27. > :28:30.no colours on the sidewall at all, and they have got three sets. In

:28:30. > :28:34.reality, they have got three sets of new tyres for this one session,

:28:34. > :28:36.because they never used very many in the first session. We will see these

:28:36. > :28:42.lap times dropped magically at the end of the session, whenever they

:28:42. > :28:46.use the softer tyre, but right now some people are putting on the new

:28:46. > :28:52.had tyre and getting one or two laps in. Maps will be very difficult to

:28:52. > :28:56.assess until everybody goes out on the same tyre. -- lap times. That is

:28:56. > :29:00.true, Gary, I hear that the idea of having the extra set of tyres for

:29:00. > :29:04.Friday was not voted through by the teams on Wednesday night, and I

:29:04. > :29:09.think there was some disappointment around that that was the case.

:29:09. > :29:12.Clearly, it makes a lot of sense, why didn't it happen? There is a

:29:12. > :29:16.provision in the regulations for Pirelli to bring experimental tyres

:29:16. > :29:19.to the meetings, and that is what they are doing. They want to learn a

:29:19. > :29:23.little bit more and get the cars to run more in the first session on

:29:23. > :29:26.Friday. That did not happen today because of the weather, so it was

:29:26. > :29:30.not that important. Pirelli need to try to get the information on

:29:30. > :29:33.different tyres at different times, and a good cross-reference to tyres

:29:33. > :29:37.that they know more about. So they are doing the right thing, I don't

:29:37. > :29:40.see why the teams don't buy into it and try to help for the future. The

:29:40. > :29:45.teams are quick at complaining about the tyres, but they need to give

:29:45. > :29:55.Pirelli some help to make sure they have got the best I going forward.

:29:55. > :30:00.

:30:00. > :30:05.-- the best tyres going forward. heard there from Rob Smedley. A

:30:05. > :30:12.really quick middle sector. He is throwing the car around, hustling

:30:12. > :30:15.get through the last final through corners. With a confident that I

:30:15. > :30:25.have not seen him driving with for some time. Fernando Alonso from Mark

:30:25. > :30:28.

:30:28. > :30:38.Webber from Felipe Massa. Just over 81 hundredths of a second ahead of

:30:38. > :30:43.Mark Webber. All four wheels on the white line, and Esteban Gutierrez

:30:43. > :30:49.giving us the perfect example. He is under pressure. Tomorrow afternoon

:30:49. > :30:55.is when we will see the pressure telling on him. On average, he is

:30:56. > :31:02.between five and six places behind Nico Hulkenberg in qualifying. You

:31:02. > :31:08.would not expect him to much Nico Hulkenberg, but you would expect him

:31:08. > :31:16.to not be that far behind. I was talking to his engineer, he was my

:31:16. > :31:21.engineer in 2002. He said that he is not that far away. When he has a

:31:21. > :31:27.clean run, he has been pretty much a match for Nico Hulkenberg, so the

:31:27. > :31:32.speed is there, but he has got to get out of the silly little

:31:32. > :31:37.incidents. That is part of the first year, finding your way around. We

:31:37. > :31:43.have seen it with so many drivers coming through. There is nothing

:31:43. > :31:45.like the pressure of those moments when qualifying. But against the

:31:45. > :31:52.best drivers in the world, you know you have got to deliver, and it is

:31:52. > :31:58.such pressure. But that is one of the best part about it, you have got

:31:58. > :32:03.to do it right here, right now, no excuses. That is where Lewis

:32:03. > :32:08.Hamilton is one of the best, dealing with that. Esteban Gutierrez will

:32:08. > :32:13.learn his craft, but later on, it starts to play on the minds of a

:32:13. > :32:21.huge rises. There is nothing like pressure, and Formula 1 supplies

:32:21. > :32:30.that. How long before people think about replacing due? You are only as

:32:30. > :32:37.good as your last race. One of the longest runs from the start down to

:32:37. > :32:45.the first corner, 700 metres. The start is critical here, it is

:32:45. > :32:53.important to have a fully functioning car. A small mistake by

:32:53. > :33:02.Nico Rosberg. He touches the curb and takes the escape road.

:33:02. > :33:05.particular drama. He got off the brake early enough to stop --. The

:33:05. > :33:15.tyres are sensitive to the sudden increase in heat. Jules Bianchi out

:33:15. > :33:19.on track in the Marussia, they have been punching above their weight in

:33:19. > :33:29.the early part of this Grand Prix season, particularly with Jules

:33:29. > :33:29.

:33:29. > :33:37.Bianchi. Absolutely flying. He has not converted it into points yet.

:33:37. > :33:41.None of the so-called new teams have scored a point yet, but they are

:33:41. > :33:44.looking like they might get there eventually. They definitely look

:33:44. > :33:50.like the team that is most likely. They have punched above their

:33:50. > :33:56.weight. Jules Bianchi has done a very good job. He is a good

:33:56. > :34:03.benchmark for Max Chilton. Two young charges, and you will see Max

:34:03. > :34:06.Chilton getting more on terms as he gains in experience and confidence.

:34:06. > :34:16.The lotus of Kimi Raikkonen, such if octave colours, reminiscent of

:34:16. > :34:18.

:34:18. > :34:26.Ayrton Senna. Nigel Mansell as well, anybody of my generation had a model

:34:26. > :34:34.of the lotus. Such evocative colours, and it is great to see them

:34:34. > :34:42.on the lotus. Kimi Raikkonen is down already, giving away a lot to the

:34:42. > :34:46.Ferrari and Red Bull. Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber the top of

:34:46. > :34:55.the timesheet at the moment. Separated by eight hundredths of a

:34:55. > :35:03.second. Not a perfect lap by any means. Kimi Raikkonen has got to

:35:03. > :35:08.decide, he will presumably have some offers on the table. Two victories,

:35:08. > :35:14.countless podiums, very competitive. If you were the head of Red Bull,

:35:14. > :35:19.would you put him in your car? Bull have always been looking

:35:19. > :35:27.towards consistency. But Kimi Raikkonen is setting his stall out

:35:27. > :35:35.very well. He said, I will make my decisions on what I will do, not, I

:35:35. > :35:41.am speaking to... He is in the driving seat right now. We will see

:35:41. > :35:43.who's driving seat he is in for 2014 is the year goes on, but around

:35:43. > :35:49.Silverstone is the time when Mark Webber tends to reduce his

:35:49. > :35:54.contract, he does it with the owner of Red Bull. He bypasses the team

:35:54. > :35:59.management. Loyalty is a big part of the story. It will be interesting,

:35:59. > :36:04.after what happened between him and Sebastian Vettel, to see whether

:36:04. > :36:10.Mark Webber stays. The difficulty is, if he is thinking about moving

:36:10. > :36:13.on, where would he go that is better than Red Bull? He has got a chance

:36:13. > :36:17.of fighting for victories and world Championships, but not many other

:36:17. > :36:25.seats would give him the same opportunities. People in the team

:36:25. > :36:29.would like him to move on. It is a lot about money, this sport. If you

:36:29. > :36:34.have got to consistent performers in because, you win the constructors

:36:34. > :36:39.championship. Red Bull have done that for the last three seasons. But

:36:39. > :36:43.the competition is getting stiffer, Mercedes will be a force from next

:36:43. > :36:50.year onwards. Everybody is looking to the future, thinking about what

:36:50. > :36:56.they can do. Mark Webber running wide. They are trying to grab as

:36:56. > :37:03.much as they can. He is up. He is hanging onto the car, throwing it

:37:03. > :37:07.around. All four wheels over the corner at cancer. Sometimes they can

:37:07. > :37:12.put all four wheels over certain corners, and that might be one of

:37:12. > :37:17.them here. That could be the quickest lap for Mark Webber.

:37:17. > :37:27.won here in the past, he knows his way around this track. He goes

:37:27. > :37:55.

:37:55. > :38:00.struggling a bit, Charles Pic and Max Chilton in particular. We look

:38:00. > :38:10.at Jules Bianchi, just over three seconds separating from Red Bull.

:38:10. > :38:10.

:38:10. > :38:15.That is not too far away. 280 metres at 200 mph, in reality, it is a good

:38:16. > :38:19.starting point. For Mark Webber, there is a period where he goes very

:38:19. > :38:26.well usually, he has an extra confidence, and he will look to

:38:26. > :38:33.maximise that. Kimi Raikkonen completes another lap. Sebastian

:38:33. > :38:43.Vettel, Nico Rosberg, Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo moving

:38:43. > :38:43.

:38:43. > :38:53.on the medium tyre. Several other drivers on the medium tyre as well.

:38:53. > :38:59.

:38:59. > :39:07.The time set by Mark Webber was on extra stability to the car. It means

:39:07. > :39:12.it does not move around around the long corners. It is not necessarily

:39:12. > :39:17.that the softer compound is always quicker, but there are odd occasions

:39:17. > :39:26.where the difference between them is quite small. Let's see what

:39:26. > :39:35.Sebastian Vettel can do on the same tyre. Mark Webber has come back into

:39:35. > :39:40.the pits after that run. He had lowish fuel. He will now refuel the

:39:40. > :39:46.car and go out with a more representative race fuel load.

:39:46. > :39:53.Pastor Maldonado not the first to make that mistake. A tailwind that

:39:53. > :39:58.is pushing. Quite a few making that mistake into the 10th corner,

:39:58. > :40:05.because of a tailwind. Kimi Raikkonen coming into the pit lane.

:40:05. > :40:14.We talked a lot about exhaust systems. They blow the hot air onto

:40:14. > :40:18.the brake ducts. Inside the rear tyre, they are mounted on. Ahead of

:40:18. > :40:24.that, you will see the exit of the exhaust pipe. The gases are coming

:40:24. > :40:30.out at high speed, underneath those wind sections, creating downforce on

:40:30. > :40:40.the rear tyre. When the driver goes on to the throttle, those gases

:40:40. > :40:46.

:40:46. > :40:52.it is productive in terms of lap times and looking after the rear

:40:52. > :40:56.tyres. It is difficult to drive, because it average eight Sebastian

:40:56. > :41:01.Vettel from Mark Webber, Sebastian Vettel has got a way of driving

:41:01. > :41:07.those cars, which Mark Webber has not quite matched. This is the

:41:07. > :41:11.section where it does work, in the long corners. Now he is going back

:41:11. > :41:17.onto the throttle, towards the end of the lap. At this point, when he

:41:17. > :41:25.is just leading off the break, it is still going on. It is getting the

:41:25. > :41:33.gases flowing. Interesting to hear how long he waited on the throttle

:41:33. > :41:41.out of the 12th corner. He goes fastest. No real sign of any emotion

:41:41. > :41:48.about that from Christian Horner, the team principal. Not much to

:41:48. > :41:53.choose between Red Bull and Rory at this stage. Ferrari are both now

:41:53. > :41:59.out, we will get a direct comparison between them and Red Bull. Can

:41:59. > :42:08.Ferrari translate the superior pace on the harder tyre across onto the

:42:08. > :42:12.medium tyre? Or will that sued Red Bull slightly better? Ferrari are

:42:12. > :42:17.right there with Red Bull. I do not think there is any question about

:42:17. > :42:23.it, but the Ferrari is looking tricky, it is bouncing around, but

:42:23. > :42:28.it is not losing grip. Felipe Massa still throwing it around with

:42:28. > :42:34.confidence and aggression. That is great to see, Felipe Massa has not

:42:34. > :42:41.expressed himself behind the wheel like this since 2008 or even the

:42:41. > :42:47.early part of 2009, for he got hit by the spring. It is a combination

:42:47. > :42:52.of getting back from the accident, the tyre not suiting his style, but

:42:52. > :42:58.with this, he seems a man reborn. saw him at dinner the other night,

:42:58. > :43:04.he looks relaxed in comparison to how he looked 12 months ago, he has

:43:04. > :43:13.got the inner confidence, he has got the field back. Not a great final

:43:13. > :43:18.sector, 0.4 seconds slower than the benchmark time, set by Mark Webber,

:43:18. > :43:22.so Red Bull is looking good in that final sector. Pastor Maldonado

:43:22. > :43:29.having a spin in the same place as Lewis Hamilton, but he collect the

:43:29. > :43:37.car. The Williams looks very unstable on the rear end, going into

:43:37. > :43:42.corners. The game, he comes into the corner on the brakes, he looks to

:43:42. > :43:49.lose the rear grip quickly. Fernando Alonso has been quicker than anybody

:43:49. > :43:59.in the first sector. A personal best in the middle sector. But he has not

:43:59. > :44:00.

:44:00. > :44:05.matched Sebastian Vettel. Just down on Sebastian Vettel, that is not

:44:05. > :44:09.what the crowd wanted to see, but at least they know he is competitive.

:44:09. > :44:13.Plenty of them will be turning out this weekend to support him. We will

:44:13. > :44:17.have to leave the Hotel early on Sunday morning, goes we will have a

:44:17. > :44:27.traffic jam, getting into this place! Remembering Valencia last

:44:27. > :44:27.

:44:27. > :44:32.year, that half an hour is well spent, leaving the hotel early!

:44:32. > :44:38.said yesterday that he feels the support, the emotion that comes from

:44:38. > :44:43.racing in front of his home crowd. He can channel that into a positive,

:44:43. > :44:47.it is not something he feels he needs to master, it is just there,

:44:47. > :44:56.it gives him a boost. So many drivers find it hard to win the home

:44:56. > :44:59.grand prix. It can be difficult, you have pressure on one shoulder and

:44:59. > :45:04.support on the other, and if you feel the pressure more than support,

:45:04. > :45:08.it still is in the wrong direction. Not in all of those cases has it

:45:08. > :45:13.been down to the driver, but it can get frustrating after a few years if

:45:13. > :45:17.you are there but do not pick up your home trophy. Halfway stage in

:45:17. > :45:21.this FP2 session before the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday in Barcelona.

:45:21. > :45:26.James Alan, Allan McNish, Gary Anderson with you, and Lewis

:45:26. > :45:30.Hamilton is on track. We are in the phase of the session where drivers

:45:30. > :45:35.are setting what will be their fastest times of the day with

:45:35. > :45:39.relatively low fuel on the faster of the two tyres, which in this case is

:45:39. > :45:42.the medium compound. Hamilton goes fifth fastest, a little bit of

:45:42. > :45:49.traffic arguably in the final corner, the final part of that

:45:49. > :45:55.sector for him. But Hamilton fifth, so not that electric single lap pace

:45:55. > :45:59.that we have seen this season so far from Mercedes, and I wonder, Allan,

:45:59. > :46:03.whether we will find out more tomorrow, as we look at a replay of

:46:03. > :46:06.Gutierrez and Alonso very nearly running into the back of him, I

:46:06. > :46:10.wonder whether we are seeing signs that Mercedes have knocked back

:46:10. > :46:14.their qualifying pace a little bat, working on trying to get that car to

:46:14. > :46:18.look after its rear tyres better in the race, and they have paid a price

:46:18. > :46:23.in terms of single lap pace as a result. They were certainly very

:46:24. > :46:28.good on single lap pace, they have a very positive front end on the car,

:46:29. > :46:35.and the penalty that is that it seems to rear tyres. Have you seen

:46:35. > :46:39.the best of the tyre? Yes, I think that is it, yes. Adrian Sutil in

:46:39. > :46:43.discussion about the best of the tyre, the peak of the tyre around

:46:43. > :46:48.the circuit is only one or two laps because of the corner lengths,

:46:48. > :46:50.because it is so difficult on them. Once you have lost that peak, you

:46:50. > :46:56.have to be very careful in your conservation, and that is something

:46:56. > :46:59.Mercedes struggled with, especially in Bahrain. Jenson Button is out on

:46:59. > :47:05.circuit. He is on the medium compound, but he has traffic in

:47:05. > :47:09.front of him. He has a Caterham, Van der Garde, and also Lewis

:47:09. > :47:13.Hamilton's Mercedes in front of him, so a bit of a messy lap for Jenson

:47:13. > :47:21.Button. He is waiting for a gap in traffic. Let's get down to Force

:47:21. > :47:26.India and John Jennie Gow and Gary Anderson. -- join. You can see that

:47:26. > :47:31.Force India have made some changes, there is an auxiliary wing, a rather

:47:31. > :47:36.complicated one this weekend. area in the middle of the wing is a

:47:36. > :47:42.new development, you can see the rear brake ducts. That monkey seat

:47:42. > :47:49.is a mechanism to mix the top wing and the bottom line, the air flow

:47:49. > :47:53.influences one from the other. That then helps the diffuser, and the car

:47:53. > :47:56.is a lot less sensitive on braking into the corner. It is all about

:47:56. > :47:59.trying to get confidence in the back of the car that the driver really

:47:59. > :48:04.need when he is on the brake pedal. They have been trying out something

:48:04. > :48:08.else as well, the suspension system that a lot of people have been

:48:08. > :48:14.talking about. They have decided it was not working, so they have taken

:48:14. > :48:18.it away, but maybe we should explain what it is. Yes, it is a tough thing

:48:18. > :48:22.to get working, but you need to get some miles on it to understand. It

:48:22. > :48:26.is front and rear interconnected suspension. Lotus and Mercedes both

:48:26. > :48:30.run a fairly complicated system, I suppose, controlling the height of

:48:30. > :48:34.the rear of the car under braking, trying to make it more stable,

:48:34. > :48:40.rather than the forces of the car changing the right side, you can

:48:40. > :48:43.alter them when the suspension is connected. Again, it is a lot of the

:48:43. > :48:48.aerodynamic stuff, optimising it to give the driver confidence to push

:48:48. > :48:56.that little bit faster. For Force India, it is a development direction

:48:56. > :48:58.for the future, but they need to get some miles on it, scratch their

:48:58. > :48:58.heads and come up with different solutions, make it work better for

:48:58. > :49:03.next time. We will see quite a lot of that being tested in the Friday

:49:04. > :49:08.morning sessions at the next few races. Thank you very much for

:49:08. > :49:11.that. Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, on the second lap on the medium tyre

:49:11. > :49:20.went faster, and that is an interesting point. Kimi Raikkonen

:49:20. > :49:27.has just set a fast lap, a couple of tenths of a second off the pace of

:49:27. > :49:32.Vettel. As I say, about two tenths of a second separating the top four

:49:32. > :49:39.cars with Massa bit, Hamilton improving on its second times lap.

:49:39. > :49:43.He is now six. Rosberg is seventh, Sutil is eight for Force India.

:49:43. > :49:46.Vergne has been pretty competitive all day, a difficult team to read at

:49:46. > :49:51.the moment, Toro Rosso. They had eight to rivet run with Ricciardo in

:49:52. > :49:58.China, qualified and finished in seventh place. -- to rivet run. That

:49:58. > :50:01.was a breakthrough for him, but they were terrible in Bahrain. I think it

:50:01. > :50:07.is depending whether the car suits the track or not, and certainly,

:50:07. > :50:10.like you say they were strong all the time in China. Here they look

:50:10. > :50:16.more competitive than they have been, but it is going to be one of

:50:16. > :50:20.those things with the airflow balance compared to the track.

:50:20. > :50:24.are not many similarities between here and China on paper, but they

:50:24. > :50:27.are both front tyre limited circuits. In that sense, it is

:50:27. > :50:31.logical that Toro Rosso was quite competitive year, having been

:50:31. > :50:36.competitive in China. When you say front tyre limited, that means the

:50:36. > :50:41.front tyre does most of the work. Bahrain is rear tyre limited,

:50:41. > :50:44.because it is low speed and traction trim. This is a bit of both, the

:50:44. > :50:49.long first section worked the front tyre had, and then the last sector

:50:49. > :50:53.is more the rear tyre that has to give the grip. I would say it is

:50:53. > :51:03.more of a balance, but they seem to have issues when it is rear tyre

:51:03. > :51:03.

:51:03. > :51:04.limited. Here, China, this type of place is where they will probably go

:51:04. > :51:10.a bit better. Max Chilton improves, goes ahead of the Caterham Charles

:51:10. > :51:14.Pic. Pic is down in 22nd and last place at the moment, and it is Max

:51:14. > :51:18.Chilton who has made a small improvement. Pic is in the pits at

:51:18. > :51:21.the moment. Caterham have a lot of updates on their car, and at the

:51:21. > :51:28.moment Van der Garde is ahead of Jules Bianchi, albeit only by about

:51:28. > :51:32.100th of a second, so pretty close between them. At the top, with 38

:51:32. > :51:40.minutes of FP2 remaining, Sebastian Vettel, the reigning world champion,

:51:40. > :51:46.three times world champion for Red Bull, is on a 1:22.808. That is

:51:46. > :51:50.likely to be the fastest time we will say today -- see today, because

:51:50. > :51:54.they will be putting more fuel on the card to give us an assessment of

:51:54. > :52:04.their race pace. Remember to look after the tyres in the corners we

:52:04. > :52:05.

:52:05. > :52:05.talked about. Now, that is interesting - we have gone into race

:52:06. > :52:09.mode, we have had low fuel, quali simulation mode, Allan, but now we

:52:09. > :52:13.are talking about race fuel, probably somewhere in excess of 80

:52:13. > :52:17.kilograms of fuel. In certain corners, you have to look after the

:52:17. > :52:22.tyres, which are the key corners? The first thing is when you say 80

:52:22. > :52:31.kilograms of fuel, that is an extra 80 kilograms in the car loading on

:52:31. > :52:35.the tyres, and every ten kilos is about 0.45 seconds per lap, so it is

:52:35. > :52:39.a big penalty. It is this sector where you have to be careful, on the

:52:40. > :52:43.front through turn three, turned four, making sure you do not get on

:52:43. > :52:47.the throttle too early, being very progressive with throttle

:52:47. > :52:51.application to make sure you do not get that instant little bit of wheel

:52:51. > :52:56.slip. If you do that, you overheat the centre of the tyre and it starts

:52:56. > :52:59.to go off. It is the left front that takes a beating around that long

:52:59. > :53:06.term three, about eight seconds through there, you are in the

:53:06. > :53:09.corner, about 4G laterally onto you, your neck and that left front tyre

:53:09. > :53:14.taking a real hammering. It is taking a huge amount of force, so

:53:14. > :53:18.from that point of view, the left front, and then in the next corner

:53:18. > :53:22.the left front, as you can see on the inside, the dark pick-up gets

:53:22. > :53:26.scrubbed off through the next corner. But then out of turn four,

:53:26. > :53:32.the left rear takes it, so the right side get an easy time, and it is the

:53:32. > :53:37.left side that gets a hard time. tyre Webber looking particularly

:53:37. > :53:41.beaten up, particularly the inside shoulder. And also of the Mercedes,

:53:41. > :53:48.you can see a bit of graining where it has been overworked,

:53:48. > :53:54.overstressed, the left front of the tyre. Rosberg at the moment not

:53:54. > :53:57.showing too bad degradation, five laps into this run, lapping about

:53:58. > :54:04.one seconds slower than on his second lap. Let's catch up with Gary

:54:04. > :54:06.Anderson at the Caterham garage. Just having a chat about the

:54:06. > :54:13.developments, John, in Bahrain you made a good step forward, but a lot

:54:13. > :54:18.of parts coming year. Yeah, we did some updates on the back of the car

:54:18. > :54:26.in Bahrain, and here we are more on the front of the car. It was all

:54:26. > :54:30.intended to be brought here in one lump, but we anticipated some for

:54:30. > :54:34.Bahrain and now we have got most of them here. So you are seeing the

:54:34. > :54:41.progress you thought you would make. FAB1 was a bit difficult, for

:54:41. > :54:45.everyone, a lot of new parts up and down the pitlane. -- FP one. We made

:54:46. > :54:49.some progress, and so we are doing so more homework now. You did not

:54:49. > :54:55.get a good run because of the conditions and a little problem, but

:54:55. > :55:05.is Heikki going to be helping in the future to help you assess these

:55:05. > :55:05.

:55:05. > :55:12.things. Yes. Basically, both cars, we have done a bit of homework on

:55:13. > :55:18.both cars, and both drivers have given us feedback. We think we have

:55:18. > :55:22.taken a step forward, it is all relative. Heikki Kovalainen, the

:55:22. > :55:27.race driver with Caterham in previous years was not able to

:55:27. > :55:31.retain that racy for last year, but at the last couple of races he has

:55:31. > :55:34.been helping them develop this upgrade package, going out to do the

:55:34. > :55:40.Friday morning running, a great asset to have a driver of that

:55:40. > :55:43.experience. That is exactly right, because with Charles Pic, they have

:55:44. > :55:47.got a driver with one year's experience, and Van der Garde has

:55:47. > :55:51.some testing experience, but they are limited in that area, and they

:55:51. > :55:54.have dropped behind Marussia in terms of performance, so they have

:55:55. > :55:57.brought Kovalainen back in, and I would not be surprised if you see

:55:57. > :56:03.him all the way through the season, swapping with one or other of the

:56:03. > :56:08.drivers. It has two effects, doing that - not only does it help you get

:56:08. > :56:12.better data from your track day, it also gives you a real hurry up to

:56:12. > :56:16.your race drivers, and interesting to see Pic in particular was quicker

:56:16. > :56:21.in Bahrain. OK, he had the rear element of the upgrade package, as

:56:21. > :56:24.John was explaining to Gary there, but on top of that, he seems to be

:56:24. > :56:28.pushing a little bit harder, and that is always the case if you feel

:56:28. > :56:30.you are under threat, you stretch yourself as a racing driver.

:56:31. > :56:36.disagree with that, drivers push themselves to the limit all the

:56:36. > :56:39.time. Sometimes it does have that positive effect, if you have got

:56:39. > :56:43.someone champing at the bit behind you, wanting to get back in the sea.

:56:43. > :56:47.The issue at Caterham was they were required to take divers who could

:56:47. > :56:51.bring sponsorship money, and that is something that Heikki Kovalainen was

:56:51. > :56:56.not in a position to do. In fact, he was paid for his services, but they

:56:56. > :57:03.are missing that right now. A few years ago, the days of BMW Sauber,

:57:03. > :57:08.height felt and veal nerve, Robert Kubica was brought in, if you

:57:08. > :57:14.remember, he got on the podium, and Peter Sauber was not particularly

:57:14. > :57:15.pleased that he had managed to find four tenths of a second compared to

:57:15. > :57:21.what he had been doing before, so they were wondering where that had

:57:21. > :57:24.been throughout the season so far. It was probably not in the car in

:57:24. > :57:28.the first place, but it is always good to have a bit of pressure, and

:57:28. > :57:33.this is an arena for competition - for drivers, four teams, for

:57:33. > :57:38.engineers, for everybody, and the pressure does bring out the best in

:57:38. > :57:43.some others. So we are now in the long run phase of this free practice

:57:43. > :57:48.session, beautiful weather here in Barcelona, 32 degrees of track

:57:48. > :57:52.temperature, 20 degrees of air temperature. Not quite as warm as we

:57:52. > :57:56.were imagining, maybe a degree or two less, but critically we are in

:57:56. > :57:59.the ideal operating temperature for the tyres. It is the first time we

:57:59. > :58:03.have been able to say that for a bit, they have been extremely too

:58:03. > :58:07.hard or too cold. But this looks like what they were hoping for in

:58:07. > :58:14.terms of the harder tyre, and once again, as we saw in Bahrain, Ferrari

:58:14. > :58:17.are doing a split pattern. Massa is out working on the harder compound

:58:17. > :58:20.tyre, while team-mate Alonso was getting data on the medium compound.

:58:20. > :58:25.We have seen Ferrari doing that, working as a team, sharing

:58:25. > :58:29.information, sharing data, getting twice the work done at the same

:58:29. > :58:36.time. They do like-for-like comparisons. Two things there -

:58:36. > :58:39.lusty we could not do that because Felipe was struggling with the car,

:58:39. > :58:43.so is feedback was not relevant. This year, they are both in tune

:58:43. > :58:47.with the car, and Ferrari have made a big performance upgrade with that.

:58:47. > :58:51.The second thing is, it is interesting that Massa has got the

:58:51. > :58:55.harder tyre and Alonso has the software, because Alonso feels that

:58:55. > :58:59.is is domain. If he can make it work, it would give him a advantage,

:58:59. > :59:04.but he has got the back-up situation of knowing where Massa is with a

:59:04. > :59:07.slightly slower and harder tyre. Massa yesterday, in his little press

:59:07. > :59:12.gathering, said he had been calling for a change to the harder

:59:12. > :59:17.compound. We look at the Ferrari doing a practice staff. He had been

:59:17. > :59:19.calling for the harder tyre to be changed, because he felt it was not

:59:19. > :59:25.doing what it should be. Now he has come into the pits and gone back out

:59:25. > :59:29.on the medium compound tyre, as we just saw, that was the graphic as he

:59:29. > :59:32.left the pits, obviously doing back-to-back comparisons. It will be

:59:32. > :59:35.interesting to hear from Massa after this session to see whether he

:59:35. > :59:39.thinks this new tyre they have brought here is a change in the

:59:39. > :59:43.right direction. He was expecting a harder tyre to last longer, to be

:59:43. > :59:46.slower than the medium tyre from a strategy point of view, but

:59:46. > :59:50.particularly to be more durable, to do substantially longer runs than

:59:50. > :59:53.the other tyres in the range, essentially doing what you would

:59:54. > :00:02.expect it would say on the tin. So we will see about that, just half an

:00:02. > :00:12.hour remaining in this practice session. Sebastian Vettel from

:00:12. > :00:21.

:00:21. > :00:31.and Sergio Perez. They are both in the pits, having some work done on

:00:31. > :00:34.

:00:34. > :00:40.the car. Valtteri Bottas ahead of Pastor Maldonado by half a second.

:00:40. > :00:50.It looks like Williams and Sauber are having a good scrap in the

:00:50. > :00:50.

:00:50. > :00:56.midfield area. Force India Company in front of them, and Toro Rosso

:00:56. > :01:02.would appear to be in front of the Sauber /Williams scrap as well. And

:01:02. > :01:09.the new teams at the back. At the moment, Romain Grosjean in that

:01:09. > :01:19.group as well. We have not seen too much from him so far. RADIO: We keep

:01:19. > :01:25.going. Yes, correct. Nico Hulkenberg, we keep going. He is

:01:25. > :01:33.pushing the tyres. Romain Grosjean goes through, and he does not

:01:33. > :01:39.improve on his time. We have seen that Sauber can extend the stents,

:01:39. > :01:45.they can run longer on the tyres. A gentle action on the tyres, and it

:01:45. > :01:50.has got Nico Hulkenberg into interesting decisions. Yes, when

:01:50. > :01:55.people have tried to understand the tyres, and making mistakes with

:01:55. > :01:59.their strategy, it has put them in a better position than the pace of the

:01:59. > :02:04.car suggests. It is their calling card, because they are not quick

:02:04. > :02:14.enough on your pace, so they need to have something in their pocket, and

:02:14. > :02:36.

:02:36. > :02:42.that seems to be it. 0.08 seconds can we draw? At the moment, the

:02:42. > :02:46.upgrades for McLaren are suggesting that they are not quite making the

:02:46. > :02:51.impact they hoped. This morning was wet, so they did not get a lot of

:02:51. > :02:56.information, but by the performance I have seen so far and away the car

:02:56. > :03:06.looks, it is still a work in progress. Lewis Hamilton coming

:03:06. > :03:08.

:03:08. > :03:12.through to complete a lap. He is on a long run. He is off the pace, he

:03:12. > :03:22.is carrying fuel. Where are we in terms of McLaren? Eight are both in

:03:22. > :03:29.the garage. Mark Webber, the inside shoulder of his left front tyre is

:03:29. > :03:36.looking very beaten up, a lot of wear. The McLaren cars have been in

:03:36. > :03:40.the garage for a while. They have just sent Jenson Button

:03:40. > :03:46.out on the medium tyres. Sergio Perez, the nose is off, and two of

:03:47. > :03:51.the mechanics working hard on the front left. They have taken apart

:03:51. > :03:55.the brake duct and they are putting it back together. The team are

:03:55. > :04:01.trying to get an understanding of what is going on, but they do have

:04:01. > :04:08.the black stickers that they put on when they are covering up what they

:04:08. > :04:13.are doing. They have got a lot of them. Gary, they are working in an

:04:13. > :04:20.aerodynamic area. Yes, the bottom of the brake duct. It takes the air

:04:20. > :04:29.from the front of the tyre, and put it behind the tyre. You are trying

:04:29. > :04:39.to manage the airflow. They have obviously had the brake duct of the

:04:39. > :04:39.

:04:39. > :04:48.car. Then they have these round black discs. You want to have an

:04:48. > :04:55.aerodynamic surface. All of these bits of airflow management, so that

:04:55. > :05:02.the air is managed well and the downforce will not be disturbed.

:05:02. > :05:07.looks like Sergio Perez will head back out in a short time. He said

:05:07. > :05:11.yesterday he has buried the hatchet with Jenson Button. They sat down

:05:11. > :05:18.after their episode in Bahrain, it was great entertainment for the

:05:18. > :05:24.neutral. But not exactly what a team wants to have. The front wing

:05:24. > :05:29.puncturing Jenson Button's rear tyre, or at least that was what

:05:29. > :05:34.should have happened, but somehow it did not. They will still race, but

:05:34. > :05:39.they will give each other more room. Sam Michael's heart rate must have

:05:39. > :05:45.been bouncing off the limiter! they have been read the riot act.

:05:45. > :05:55.For me, it was Sergio Perez and Jenson Button laid down their

:05:55. > :05:58.

:05:58. > :06:04.marker. Very interesting. 24 minutes of the session remaining. Let's have

:06:04. > :06:11.a look at the long runs we are seeing, what patterns can we see?

:06:11. > :06:16.Who is managing the tyres well? What stories are we picking up? If you

:06:16. > :06:26.look at the overall ranking, Sebastian Vettel is quickest, but in

:06:26. > :06:27.

:06:28. > :06:33.his long run, he has been bouncing around, 29.5 come -- 29.5. At the

:06:33. > :06:40.other end, Romain Grosjean, 18th quickest overall, but his long run

:06:41. > :06:44.is very quick. The Lotus really seems to be hooked up. But we have

:06:44. > :06:51.seen that a queue times before, it is in qualifying where they

:06:51. > :06:56.struggle. They need to have a bit more front end. The flip side,

:06:56. > :07:01.Mercedes are struggling. The rear tyre degradation seems to be the

:07:02. > :07:09.issue. Looks like the tyres are working hard but they have dropped

:07:09. > :07:16.off. That says to me that they will be quick in qualifying but their

:07:16. > :07:23.woes of tyre wear are not fixed. RADIO: Look after the left-hand side

:07:23. > :07:33.tyres. Nico Rosberg being told to look after the tyres. Mercedes will

:07:33. > :07:39.have to work on that, as it will have relevance for next year. You

:07:39. > :07:43.will have to manage your tyre wear in a different way. Mercedes will

:07:43. > :07:49.have to work on that to get on top of it. Not just for the rest of this

:07:49. > :07:55.year, but for next year as well. It is also driving styles. They do not

:07:55. > :07:59.have traction control any more. The tyres are quick to lose rip and

:07:59. > :08:05.traction, so do need to have the delicate touch. And a bit on the

:08:05. > :08:12.steering. That is something that the drivers have to chew their style to

:08:12. > :08:16.a bit, and it will suit some more than others. We have had the

:08:16. > :08:20.analysis of the long runs, I do not know if Gary Anderson can hear us?

:08:20. > :08:28.Give us your view of the picture we have seen so far, with 22 minutes

:08:28. > :08:34.remaining. You have got Red Bull and Ferrari, Kimi Raikkonen is always

:08:34. > :08:44.very quick when it comes to putting in the lap and getting a good grid

:08:44. > :08:50.position. But if anything, Lotus need more performance in qualifying

:08:50. > :09:00.to get right up at the front. Instead of playing catch up. In the

:09:00. > :09:01.

:09:01. > :09:09.testing in the winter, the Lotus had the long run pace. RADIO: Fernando

:09:10. > :09:16.lifted to safety tyres. Yes, looking at the tyres, when the rear tyre

:09:16. > :09:21.starts to go away, it is a nightmare for the driver, because as it starts

:09:21. > :09:25.to oversteer, it gets worse and worse. If you can get yourself

:09:25. > :09:32.through the third corner, it is very quick, it is easy to run out wide,

:09:32. > :09:37.because you are right on the line. That is one corner that you have got

:09:37. > :09:47.to look after your tyres and keep them underneath you. But the Lotus

:09:47. > :09:51.makes very good long runs. RADIO: That is right. I did like your

:09:51. > :09:57.statement, saying it is a nightmare. When you have lost the rear tyre, it

:09:57. > :10:01.is a real nightmare, the car is inconsistent, and you have got to go

:10:01. > :10:05.on and off the throttle. They are taking it back from the limit so

:10:05. > :10:12.they can conserve the tyre. In terms of the updates everybody has

:10:12. > :10:15.wrought, Gary, these kits in many places of the product of ten or 12

:10:15. > :10:24.weeks of research and development work, everybody is looking for

:10:24. > :10:29.tenths of a second. What looks like it is working well? Again, it is

:10:29. > :10:36.difficult to know, because ten kilograms of fuel makes a difference

:10:36. > :10:41.around here. It is difficult. Until push comes to shove in qualifying,

:10:41. > :10:48.we cannot guess at it. It does not look like the McLaren modifications

:10:48. > :10:53.are exciting, but they have got the front wing package, so I suspect

:10:53. > :10:57.somebody will try to run it before the end of the session. When I spoke

:10:57. > :11:05.to some Michael, he said, we were not sure whether we would race it

:11:05. > :11:14.yet. But if it enhances performance, if it on the car. I will let you

:11:14. > :11:20.know if it goes on. A Force India has stopped, it is Paul di Resta.

:11:20. > :11:25.Will he do a practice start? No, he is on the grass. His left rear tyre

:11:25. > :11:33.has lost the middle part of the tread, very similar to what we saw

:11:33. > :11:39.with Lewis Hamilton in Bahrain. It has lost the centre of tread. You

:11:39. > :11:45.can see the carcass of it. Gary, it has the laminated the central part

:11:45. > :11:51.of the left rear tyre will stop it is a medium compound tyre, the same

:11:52. > :12:01.one that Lewis Hamilton was using in Bahrain. A cumulus problem. What do

:12:02. > :12:02.

:12:02. > :12:08.you think? Yes, I can see it. You can see the weave of the tyre, the

:12:08. > :12:14.rubber belt has come off it. Through the third corner, that is the last

:12:14. > :12:20.thing you want to happen. 20 minutes to go, parking it up is the best

:12:20. > :12:25.thing to do, because it is easy... We can see part of the tyre on the

:12:25. > :12:33.straight. It is easy to damage the bodywork. Pirelli have to look at

:12:33. > :12:42.that tonight, because if you have a problem with the bonding agent...

:12:42. > :12:48.You can see it has completely gone. That has been a problem. We are at

:12:48. > :12:57.normal temperatures, this is normal European temperature. We saw it

:12:57. > :13:00.earlier in the season, they will have to look at this, this is once

:13:00. > :13:10.too often. Do you think this is due to the track temperature or just the

:13:10. > :13:11.

:13:11. > :13:21.load that goes through it, creating temperature? RADIO: The rear left

:13:21. > :13:23.

:13:23. > :13:30.Tyler. Should I stop or continue? Stop, please, Paul. GARY: We have

:13:30. > :13:38.seen the problem at a range of temperatures. It is the cornering

:13:39. > :13:43.and braking forces that is searing the bonding agent. These tyres, you

:13:44. > :13:53.make the carcass, you put a sidewall rubber on and you put a round cheap

:13:54. > :13:54.

:13:54. > :14:01.of rubber on, and it is bonded onto the metal carcass. It is the sheer

:14:01. > :14:06.load that goes between the rubber and the carcass of the tyre. The

:14:06. > :14:16.tyres are outperforming the blue. It is interesting, because it is the

:14:16. > :14:17.

:14:17. > :14:26.tyre that most people are on. Everybody else has been doing long

:14:26. > :14:34.runs on the medium. It is strange that it has happened to Force India.

:14:34. > :14:39.Is there any particular reason? could be the look of the draw. It is

:14:39. > :14:42.definitely the belt that has come. Paul had done only six laps on

:14:42. > :14:47.that, Grosjean still running competitive after ten. It is not as

:14:47. > :14:53.if Paul is heavy on the left foot, he was able to conserve his tyres in

:14:53. > :14:59.Bahrain. So it looks like the tyre has failed. So you think, Gary

:14:59. > :15:04.Anderson, a manufacturing issue of a particular tyre? Yes, we saw with

:15:04. > :15:11.Lewis Hamilton and then a little bit of it with Felipe Massa, the reality

:15:11. > :15:16.of it is I think that it is so random that it is more about quality

:15:16. > :15:20.control than a complete tyre issue. But obviously, when anything like

:15:20. > :15:24.that fails, even only one out of a hundred, it is a bit near the mark,

:15:24. > :15:27.you need a higher safety margin. These cars are designed, the

:15:27. > :15:32.suspension components, you look at your data get the maximum load of

:15:32. > :15:37.the wishbone during the working life, and then you multiply by a

:15:37. > :15:43.factor. If you want to be risky, multiplied by 1.1, you have a 10%

:15:43. > :15:50.safety cushion. If you want to play at safe, multiply it by 1.5, but you

:15:50. > :15:57.end up with a heavier components, albeit stronger. Fox's lap, please,

:15:57. > :16:02.please confirm. -- box this lap. is a bit too close to the mark, but

:16:02. > :16:07.the lateral performance of these tyres can outdo the glue between the

:16:07. > :16:11.carcass of the tyre and the tread, the sheer force can brake the glue.

:16:11. > :16:16.If you put enough weight on it, you will brake the glue. You have to get

:16:16. > :16:20.a better glue. When you looked at it there, it was looking at the last

:16:20. > :16:24.corner, quite fortunate that he was straightening the wheel when it

:16:24. > :16:27.started to go, it was not as if he was at the most loaded point, where

:16:27. > :16:32.he might have gone off backwards. Very fortunate way did have the

:16:32. > :16:42.problem. 14 minutes of this practice session remaining as the Lotus comes

:16:42. > :16:45.into the pits of Romain Grosjean, Kimi Raikkonen also there. A new set

:16:45. > :16:53.of tyres, going on to the harder compound tyre there and back out

:16:53. > :16:57.again. A synchronised pit stop for the two Lotus cars. And back out

:16:57. > :17:03.they go, with Raikkonen first. You can tell his car, the black camera

:17:03. > :17:06.on top, and Grosjean has the green on board camera over the top of the

:17:06. > :17:10.airbox. Let's catch up with Gary Anderson again at McLaren. Just

:17:10. > :17:15.looking at the new front wing, they have not got it on the car yet, but

:17:15. > :17:23.it is sitting in the pitlane. You can see this part of the endplate is

:17:23. > :17:26.different, only one intake, the older wing has to. -- two. This is

:17:26. > :17:35.about getting better airplay to the back of the car to get more

:17:35. > :17:41.consistent downpours out of the back of the car. It is getting hidden at

:17:41. > :17:46.the minute, but that is OK. They have got six, seven elements in that

:17:47. > :17:49.area, carrying a very large main element, and when ever that so is

:17:49. > :17:57.ever low separation problems, a big percentage of downforce is lost, but

:17:57. > :18:00.we will see. A reasonable crowd here for a Friday, enjoying the

:18:00. > :18:05.sunshine, 20 degrees is the air temperature. It has been stable

:18:05. > :18:09.throughout the course of this 90 minute session, so the teams have

:18:10. > :18:13.been able to get some useful information. Big black clouds behind

:18:13. > :18:17.us. Luckily for us, they are in the opposite direction to the way the

:18:18. > :18:21.wind is blowing, so with a bit of luck, Allan McNish and I will not

:18:21. > :18:24.get wet on the way back to the paddock after this practice session,

:18:24. > :18:28.hopefully we will still have dry socks for the rest of the afternoon.

:18:28. > :18:34.There has been rain in the area, no doubt about it, raining hard just

:18:34. > :18:39.before the first practice. Lewis, a system to others,

:18:39. > :18:43.degradation similar. If we can hold 32s, that would be good. Lewis

:18:43. > :18:51.Hamilton being told what sort of pace they are looking for from him,

:18:52. > :18:55.laps around the 1:32 range. He is on the medium compound tyre. I have got

:18:55. > :19:02.to say, the pace may be similar, but the degradation is higher than the

:19:02. > :19:05.others. He is dropping off by a second or a half. Gone back to

:19:05. > :19:10.Vettel, he was running similar times to what he started with, so right

:19:10. > :19:15.now I think it is definitely the interpretation of things, you should

:19:15. > :19:17.say. It looks like Mercedes are slightly harder on the tyre, still,

:19:17. > :19:22.particularly the medium compound, which is what they will stop the

:19:22. > :19:29.Grand Prix on, because it is likely to be the qualifying tyre. The rules

:19:29. > :19:33.for the top ten are that you have to start the race on the tyre with

:19:33. > :19:38.which they qualify. When we talk about degradation, we're not talking

:19:38. > :19:42.about the way the tyre is falling apart or wearing. Degradation is the

:19:42. > :19:52.degradation in lap times, the loss of performance from lap to lap in

:19:52. > :19:56.

:19:56. > :20:03.in the Force India. Massa trying to go around the outside, by the looks

:20:03. > :20:07.of things, he knew he was there, didn't he? He was looking across.

:20:07. > :20:12.For sure, Sutil has run a bit wide, but he is in front, they are trying

:20:13. > :20:16.to duke it out as they go through the long turn three. Massa decides

:20:16. > :20:21.it is probably better in this practice session to lift off and

:20:21. > :20:25.calm things down again. If you are just joining us, we have had a spin

:20:25. > :20:29.for Lewis Hamilton early on, but he was able to recover. Tremendous

:20:29. > :20:35.competition at the front with three cars separated by hundredths of a

:20:35. > :20:39.second. Vettel, Alonso and Webber, two red Bulls and a Ferrari - that

:20:39. > :20:44.is the shape of things going into the Spanish Grand Prix weekend. Ten

:20:44. > :20:49.minutes of this session remaining, Alonso is on another long lap now,

:20:49. > :20:54.we are in that phase, everyone preparing for Sunday's race getting

:20:54. > :20:58.as much information as they can. A lot of new parts have been tested

:20:58. > :21:02.this afternoon. And one of those that is going to be tested out,

:21:02. > :21:04.apparently, is McLaren are putting on their new nose, so we will get

:21:04. > :21:14.some information from Gary about the performance of that later. They

:21:14. > :21:22.

:21:22. > :21:27.is no sign of the tyre going off, then they cut the radio. He did not

:21:27. > :21:32.tell him what to do, keep pushing harder, that is the final part of

:21:32. > :21:35.the sentence. Going back to McLaren, they definitely need that

:21:35. > :21:38.upgrade to work, the front wing, to make the rest of the system work in

:21:38. > :21:48.better harmony than what it is now. better harmony than what it is now.

:21:48. > :21:52.

:21:52. > :21:55.You have to say that and Perez, in Force India are concerned, they look

:21:55. > :22:02.competitive once again. Paul di Resta is no longer taking part in

:22:02. > :22:06.the session - he had a rear tyre delaminate it, a scary moments that

:22:06. > :22:10.Pirelli will want to take a look at. We can touch on that, what procedure

:22:10. > :22:20.will happen from now on in terms of analysis of why that problem

:22:20. > :22:21.

:22:21. > :22:25.happened? We are too slow at this stage. That is Hulkenberg saying he

:22:25. > :22:32.is too slow. I think we could have told him that, looking at the

:22:32. > :22:36.numbers! Rubens Barrichello, the former Formula One driver, back into

:22:36. > :22:41.the paddock. Pirelli, as they did with the tyres that had the

:22:41. > :22:45.problems, they will get it back to the factory in Milan, where they can

:22:45. > :22:48.do in-depth testing very quickly. Then they will make a decision. It

:22:48. > :22:56.depends if it is the same sort of problem as they had in Bahrain or

:22:56. > :22:59.something different. The new nose going on the McLaren. Sergio Perez.

:22:59. > :23:06.Some sort of hold of there, uncertainty at the back, they need

:23:06. > :23:13.to lift up to get the stand underneath the car, just to get it

:23:13. > :23:16.out. Perez out on circuit. Slightly messy from McLaren, but not a normal

:23:16. > :23:22.clockwork operation, but Perez is out on circuit. Once again, running

:23:22. > :23:27.deep into turn ten, still a strong tail wind. Not as strong as before,

:23:27. > :23:31.it has trotted off again, but we saw quite a few cars running deep into

:23:31. > :23:35.turn ten because the wind, a head wind down the pit straight, is a

:23:35. > :23:40.tailwind for the cars going into turn ten. If we have that tomorrow,

:23:40. > :23:45.it will be very interesting in qualifying. It is not an easy thing

:23:45. > :23:49.to master. And there are quite a lot of changes of camber into the apex,

:23:49. > :23:54.so you need to have a confident rear so that you can be aggressive with

:23:54. > :23:59.the car, then the front suddenly looks up, use the camber to flick it

:23:59. > :24:03.off the hill towards Campsa. It is a tricky section, but you need the

:24:03. > :24:05.rear stability. Into the closing stages of free practice demerit to,

:24:06. > :24:13.there is still an hour tomorrow morning in which they can fine tune

:24:13. > :24:16.the cars. -- free practice 2. Then it is quali and the race, the

:24:16. > :24:20.competitive parts of the Grand Prix weekend, so the pressure begins to

:24:20. > :24:24.mount more and more. This is a research exercise on a Friday

:24:24. > :24:30.afternoon to see where you are, get as many laps as you can. We have

:24:30. > :24:35.seen quite a lot of marbles from the tyres, pieces of rubber that she off

:24:35. > :24:38.the surface of the tyre and just lie there like marbles, literally, and

:24:39. > :24:43.they are very slippery when they are combined with bits of oil and dust

:24:43. > :24:47.on the outside of the circuit. They make it quite difficult to go

:24:47. > :24:51.offline to overtake, and you can see that the tyres on this first day

:24:51. > :24:56.here in Barcelona, they are getting chewed up quite a bit, quite a lot

:24:56. > :24:59.of marbles for a Friday afternoon. And come the race, they are usually

:24:59. > :25:04.a good indication of how hard the circuit is on the tyre, the length

:25:04. > :25:07.of the corners, because the tyre work significantly harder in the

:25:07. > :25:11.corners than on the straights. The trick is keeping off them and

:25:11. > :25:16.keeping your tyres clean, because once you get those marbles onto the

:25:16. > :25:21.servers of your tyre, it is like driving on ice. You have to get

:25:21. > :25:25.loaded again, get the tyre fresh and working by itself on the track.

:25:25. > :25:29.was a good luck on our monitors at the new front wing on the McLaren in

:25:29. > :25:35.action. Meanwhile, the inside shoulder of the left front tyre of

:25:35. > :25:41.Sergio Perez's McLaren looking very warm. And that is the part that gets

:25:41. > :25:45.all of the work through turns three and nine, and we have already heard

:25:45. > :25:49.some drivers being told to lift off and be gentle through those corners.

:25:49. > :25:55.If you do not, you overwork it, and they do not look nice when you see

:25:55. > :25:58.it like that. Just under five minutes remaining, Romain Grosjean,

:25:58. > :26:04.as he did in the preseason testing, looking very quick indeed on the

:26:04. > :26:06.long runs. That was the standout run of the winding testing, the one that

:26:06. > :26:10.Grosjean did here, is called the attention of all the engineers and

:26:10. > :26:16.the people who knew what they were looking at from the times, and it

:26:16. > :26:22.would appear that they have come here with a very good race car. We

:26:22. > :26:28.are gay continue running. It sounded a bit like Kimi Raikkonen talking to

:26:28. > :26:32.him! That was Romain Grosjean being told that the tyres are getting worn

:26:32. > :26:39.but he has okayed to continue running. How many laps has he done?

:26:39. > :26:43.Still in 18th place you might look at the lap times and say it has not

:26:43. > :26:47.been a great day for him, but when you look at the work he has been

:26:47. > :26:50.doing in preparation for the Grand Prix, it has been a great day.

:26:50. > :27:00.debt he was the standout in pre-season testing, it was the

:27:00. > :27:04.standout long run today as well. -- you said. The Lotus drivers look

:27:04. > :27:08.quite comfortable, confident in the car. The key for them is to make

:27:08. > :27:11.sure that they are on the front row if they can, and then they can use

:27:11. > :27:17.that advantage. If they are behind, they have to fight through, and that

:27:17. > :27:20.is much harder. It looks like the top six or seven cars are quicker,

:27:20. > :27:24.there is quite a gap between them and the Force India and everybody

:27:24. > :27:28.else. It depends what McLaren can pull out of the bag in qualifying,

:27:28. > :27:33.but Lotus look like they are capable of getting on the front three rows

:27:33. > :27:37.of the grid, maybe even getting one car onto the second row. Raikkonen

:27:37. > :27:41.is fourth fastest, just a couple of tenths slower than the Red Bull and

:27:41. > :27:46.the Ferrari. It would appear the Lotus is quick enough on single lap

:27:46. > :27:50.pace, and looking at Grosjean, without doubt, it is the fastest and

:27:50. > :27:55.most consistent race car. And it will be a decision on Sunday between

:27:55. > :27:59.two and three stops, how you do this race, whether perhaps you save a set

:27:59. > :28:03.of new tyres for the Grand Prix on Sunday, and maybe we will see some

:28:03. > :28:06.interesting strategy coming into play. It looks to me like we have

:28:06. > :28:09.got three competitive teams going into this Grand Prix in the form of

:28:09. > :28:15.Red Bull, Ferrari and Lotus, in different ways going about their

:28:15. > :28:20.business. I have to say the Force Indias are not as far away as it

:28:20. > :28:24.appears on lap times, ultimate pace. Sutil's long run has been pretty

:28:24. > :28:28.good as well, and they seem to have been able to continue some of their

:28:28. > :28:35.upturn in performance that they had in Bahrain. Paul di Resta stopping

:28:35. > :28:39.after six laps with a tyres you, that is going to get them scratching

:28:39. > :28:42.their head a little bit, but I do not think it will affect them too

:28:42. > :28:46.much. -- a tyre issue. Just a minute and a half remaining to grab a few

:28:46. > :28:50.last-minute laps, and any last-minute data you possibly can.

:28:50. > :28:54.McLaren are trying to find out more about their new front wing package.

:28:55. > :28:58.Some drivers are pushing their tyres to the limit to see how long they

:28:58. > :29:04.will actually lasted over the course of a Grand Prix. Felipe Massa out

:29:04. > :29:07.through the long term three, eight seconds of 4G laterally on his neck,

:29:07. > :29:11.straining the muscles down the left-hand side of his neck. He is

:29:11. > :29:17.closing up on the back of the McLaren of Sergio Perez as he goes

:29:17. > :29:21.through turn five and then through the curve at six, looking to pass

:29:21. > :29:27.the Mexican driver through turn seven, 90 mph through that

:29:27. > :29:30.left-hander going up the hill towards the 160 mph turn nine. He is

:29:30. > :29:36.learning how the Ferrari de Aves in the slipstream of another car, and

:29:36. > :29:41.now he is going to use his DRS went to slide up alongside and passed the

:29:41. > :29:45.McLaren into that 80 mph left-hander, turn ten, through 11

:29:45. > :29:49.and 12, where they have to wait, wait, wait before putting the

:29:49. > :29:53.throttle back on, as we found out earlier with Vettel, it felt like an

:29:53. > :29:57.eternity before he could put the power back down again. Through 13,

:29:57. > :30:00.40 now into the cookie cutter corners at the end of the lap, added

:30:00. > :30:05.a few years ago. It used to be straight downhill when you were

:30:05. > :30:11.racing here in the Toyota, straight down the hill them. Turn 16, the

:30:11. > :30:15.final corner, 160 BH, down the straight, Massa crosses the line,

:30:15. > :30:19.not a bad crowd for a Friday, plenty of Spanish support. You could have

:30:19. > :30:23.bought a ticket of race day for the Spanish Grand Prix when I started

:30:23. > :30:31.back in 1990, no problems at all. Now, if you had not bought them by

:30:31. > :30:37.Christmas, you are stuffed! Spanish do like the fact they have

:30:37. > :30:46.got a man at the front. We saw Felipe Massa going round, he is

:30:46. > :30:54.quick, and it seems to be suiting him well, with the times that are

:30:54. > :30:58.consistent and pretty fast. interesting picture emerging. If

:30:58. > :31:03.Gary is still with us, maybe we can get his thoughts on what we have

:31:03. > :31:10.seen this afternoon. Sebastian Vettel from Fernando Alonso and Mark

:31:10. > :31:20.Webber. The top three. Kimi Raikkonen fourth, so good pace from

:31:20. > :31:28.

:31:28. > :31:33.him. RADIO: Current pace this target. Lewis Hamilton, he was told

:31:33. > :31:38.earlier on to stick around the one minute 31, 32 range. That is what he

:31:38. > :31:45.has been doing. We will have to look at the performances, but the

:31:45. > :31:55.snapshot of what we have seen is pretty competitive. Red Bull,

:31:55. > :32:00.Ferrari, in terms of your pace. Kimi Raikkonen and Lotus not far away.

:32:00. > :32:04.The Ferrari looks to be good on both sets of tyres, that is important.

:32:04. > :32:10.The man we are writing with, Fernando Alonso, he was quick on the

:32:10. > :32:17.harder of the tyres. He was very consistent. They have got a good car

:32:17. > :32:21.in every situation. It is the runners and riders at the front, we

:32:21. > :32:24.will see Mercedes having to take out some performance in qualifying, even

:32:25. > :32:31.if it sacrifices some of the race, because otherwise they will struggle

:32:31. > :32:38.with degradation. If everybody knew how to do that, they would have it.

:32:39. > :32:48.It is always a compromise. You can go for an end of the spectrum or for

:32:49. > :32:56.

:32:57. > :33:05.top 12. Paul di Resta had to stop with what looks like a laminated

:33:05. > :33:09.left rear tyre. There will be some questions about that. Sergio Perez

:33:09. > :33:15.outside the top 12, we will question the effectiveness of their

:33:15. > :33:20.upgrades, McLaren. Williams and Sauber in their own personal battle

:33:20. > :33:28.in midfield. Romain Grosjean does not look good in the classification,

:33:28. > :33:35.but he was good in the long runs. He is a big talking point. The bragging

:33:35. > :33:42.rights for the new teams at the back, caterer of Marussia, but only

:33:42. > :33:50.by just over .1 seconds. Charles Pic not finding the speed today, he was

:33:50. > :34:00.slower than Giedo van der Garde. It is not a problem that kept him in

:34:00. > :34:05.the garage. Max Chilton rounding out the top 22. One minute 26.9, four

:34:05. > :34:11.seconds slower than the benchmark time by Sebastian Vettel. You are

:34:11. > :34:15.going to have a fewer engineers taking the data that they had. They

:34:15. > :34:21.lost this morning, so they have tried to concertina today's time

:34:21. > :34:25.into this afternoon. They will be looking at that to make sure they

:34:26. > :34:30.will make the right decision tomorrow. Some of them will get it

:34:30. > :34:40.right, some of them will not. This man has got confidence, he is going

:34:40. > :34:40.

:34:40. > :34:46.to his fans. Listen. They adore him. Will they be able to lift him?

:34:46. > :34:51.sure, they will try, they will make as much noise as they can. He feeds

:34:51. > :34:57.off it, he is right there, and he is competitive, in competition with Red

:34:57. > :35:01.Bull. The reigning world champion ends up at the top of the timesheet,

:35:01. > :35:06.but it will be a competitive weekend. The third practice coming

:35:06. > :35:11.up tomorrow, and then qualifying and the race. What we have seen so far

:35:12. > :35:16.has whetted our appetite for this Spanish Grand Prix. Can Lewis

:35:16. > :35:26.Hamilton find more performance? It has been a fascinating session, and

:35:26. > :35:28.

:35:28. > :35:34.we will see you tomorrow. Yes, it is extremely busy. The top

:35:34. > :35:43.four teams have done enough work? I think so. They have to try the

:35:43. > :35:46.softer tyre ahead of qualifying. They do that just before three

:35:46. > :35:53.o'clock and then top up the fuel to see what will happen before the

:35:53. > :35:57.race. There will be a lot of data tonight to understand. It was good

:35:57. > :36:04.weather for that session. It was good that the weather held out, as

:36:04. > :36:11.the temperature dropped. Ten minutes ago, you felt the wind biting, which

:36:11. > :36:20.makes a difference. Yes, the wind is difficult, because it depends on

:36:20. > :36:23.what direction it comes from. It always hurts the rear tyre. If the

:36:23. > :36:29.wind is changing on the third corner, it makes the car difficult

:36:29. > :36:35.to drive. You have to get on with it and try to find out what the best

:36:35. > :36:41.set-up is. Let's look at the one incident, Paul di Resta and the tyre

:36:42. > :36:46.which seems to be a theme so far this year. We saw something similar

:36:46. > :36:54.with Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa. Is this happening too often?

:36:54. > :37:02.Yes, but we have only seen it twice, so the quality control is a

:37:02. > :37:05.bit suspect. They have had two or 300 samples of the running, they

:37:05. > :37:10.have analysed it at the factory, but they will have to do some work

:37:10. > :37:19.tonight, because that corner is horrible on the left rear tyre, and

:37:19. > :37:23.that is the one that failed. The glue is not strong enough. Pirelli

:37:23. > :37:28.have said they will not comment until they have had a look and

:37:28. > :37:32.assessed what has happened. They are using the curbs a lot, but they do

:37:32. > :37:39.everywhere, so this has got to be able to withstand this kind of

:37:39. > :37:47.performance. Yes, Lewis Hamilton was at high temperatures. But here, it

:37:47. > :37:51.is not, it is normal European temperatures, even cooler. They can

:37:51. > :37:58.test it with ultrasound. The tyres have got to go back to Pirelli

:37:58. > :38:04.tonight. They will see if there is any bee lamination between the

:38:04. > :38:07.rubber and the carcass, and they will cut them open to see it. It is

:38:07. > :38:12.internal blistering, the rubber separates in and it builds up heat

:38:12. > :38:20.and separates even more. They will try to identify where the problem

:38:20. > :38:27.arrived from. A lot of sleepless nights for the Pirelli staff.

:38:27. > :38:32.difficult times for them, they are under the spotlight, and we talked

:38:32. > :38:37.earlier about the fact that the teams did not want the extra tyre.

:38:37. > :38:43.Would you surprised at that? It is a bit strange. They talk about testing

:38:43. > :38:47.restrictions, but for Pirelli it is even harder, they have to decide

:38:47. > :38:57.which tyres to come with, and they want to look outside the box with

:38:57. > :38:59.

:38:59. > :39:01.developments, but they cannot bring 50, 60 sets of tyres. They want to

:39:02. > :39:06.bring things with different characteristics to do research for

:39:06. > :39:11.the future, so the teams were short-sighted. Watching some of the

:39:11. > :39:17.highlights of the session, the crowd loving Fernando Alonso. He said

:39:17. > :39:21.something interesting this weekend. He thinks perhaps you do not have to

:39:21. > :39:27.be on the front row to win, but the statistics sake you do. What does he

:39:28. > :39:33.know? At the end of the day, the tyres are a problem, you have got to

:39:33. > :39:37.manage them. If you look after them, you can handle it, but you do not

:39:37. > :39:43.want to be much further back than fourth place. I am sure the winner

:39:43. > :39:47.will come from the first two rows. Fernando Alonso wants to be on pole

:39:47. > :39:52.position and win the race. He is letting the other teams think he

:39:52. > :39:58.will lie down a bit tomorrow, but he wants the crowd to see him sitting

:39:58. > :40:02.on pole position. He was livid after Bahrain, he felt he had been let

:40:02. > :40:08.down by his team, because there have been two incidents that have been

:40:08. > :40:16.the fault of the team, audibly. He is after the championship. Can he

:40:16. > :40:23.win tomorrow? Sunday? I think so. The car is good. Those two suspect

:40:23. > :40:28.phrases, he understands it was not the performance, it was issues that

:40:28. > :40:32.caused it. He can live with that. Whenever you add the points up at

:40:32. > :40:35.the end of the season, the person with the most points wins the

:40:35. > :40:43.championship, so he needs to make sure he gets as many points as

:40:43. > :40:48.possible now. Ferrari cannot afford any more mistakes, but if Fernando

:40:48. > :40:53.Alonso has a car that lasts, he can win this race. Having the home

:40:54. > :41:01.advantage, he still has to be Sebastian Vettel. He was faultless

:41:02. > :41:09.today. Yes, Red Bull is strong. Sebastian Vettel has never had pole

:41:09. > :41:15.position here. This is regarded as a Red Bull track. Cars with good

:41:15. > :41:20.aerodynamics perform well here. For a few years, Red Bull dominated this

:41:20. > :41:27.track, but Sebastian Vettel did not make it to pole position. So he

:41:27. > :41:32.would love to be in pole position with Fernando Alonso second.

:41:32. > :41:36.Tomorrow afternoon will be a fantastic battle. Behind us,

:41:36. > :41:42.preparations going on, because the GP to session is happening just

:41:42. > :41:47.after. We need to stay out of the way. Mark Webber, to pole positions

:41:47. > :41:51.here, the competition between him and Sebastian Vettel continues, no

:41:52. > :41:56.love lost, they have never really liked each other, but it is

:41:56. > :42:05.fascinating to watch. The first guy you have got to beat is your

:42:05. > :42:12.team-mate, they know that. Sebastian Vettel seems to be able to find it,

:42:12. > :42:18.Mark Webber is always quick here, he likes this track, so if you blink,

:42:18. > :42:21.you lose a 10th of a second, which could be enough. It will be a great

:42:21. > :42:27.battle in qualifying, and hopefully the weather stays good and we see

:42:27. > :42:33.the battle in the last five minutes of qualifying. That split-2nd costs

:42:33. > :42:38.millions of pounds of research and develop meant and everything.

:42:38. > :42:42.Tomorrow, we have got the free practice in the morning, and in

:42:42. > :42:46.qualifying in the afternoon, who do you think for the front row? I think

:42:46. > :42:51.it will be Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso. They are fighting

:42:51. > :43:01.so hard for the next championship. Sebastian Vettel will never get the

:43:01. > :43:02.

:43:02. > :43:05.chance again to win four in a row, and Fernando Alonso is going for his