Japanese GP: Free Practice and Qualifying Report
motorsport-live.com April 2nd, 2016
Barring expectations, it was a mostly dry practice session here in Yokohama and it was a productive one for the teams. "We got ourselves some good data about the tyres and the track, and build a good setup,"
José Vásquez told us. He did not answer any questions about his neck though.
"Race simulation, qualifying sim, some time on the intermediate tyre, it was a great session," the
Panther boss exclaimed in an interview with BBC. He had every reason to be happy as his two drivers were on top in saturday practice with
Sharp posting a 1.20.583 and
Surikov a 1.20.906.
A little step for
Lotus maybe,
Vidal was P17 with a 1.23.187, in front of both
Vélan Racing cars. And they would make some great tries in qualifying.
With the track dry at the start, the two
Lotus charged out of the pits to get a banker lap in early and they were just in time. Rain came down while they started their flying lap, and
Vidal crossed start finish with a 1.21.250,
Woodford 1.22.156.
And most of the other drivers drove their first attempt in the rain.
Sharp was quick and was P1 with a 1.20.562, then
Chapman in the
Steinmann, 0.281 behind, and then
Vidal in the
Lotus.
Unfortunately for them, it was only a quick shower and the track dried towards the end of qualifying, making way for the big teams to correct their early error, which became clear when
Lundquist in the
Vélan put a 1.19.412 on the board, crossing the line with 2:30 to go in qualifying.
And the laptimes came thick and fast after that.
Schmift(VD) 1.18.699,
Sharp(PAN) crossed the line with eight seconds to go 1.18.304,
Lipponen(WR) 1.17.843.
And then came the biggest of big guns.
Holtz 1.17.666 P1!
Chapman put the second
Steinmann on P3 and they are split by the
Windsor of
Aki Lipponen.
Surikov, winner of Qatar, only P9.
Lotus Iker Vidal made the latest of late attempts, crossing the line with two seconds to go to start his flying lap. He drove a 1.19.711 and will start from P17.
"Well done by
Lotus. Yes, they did not manage the upset, but they read the weather report well and were P3 and P6. That is how you get success as a small team," former F1 team boss Eddie Jordan told the television audiance after qualifying.
Team Radio of the Day:
"P3 and it is raining." -
"(Censored by GMA), let it rain like hell please."
Iker Vidal,
Lotus, third after the first of two runs in qualifying.
--
That is what I meant by: if it rains, we have a shot. The right call at the right time, the right tyres at the right time, and we can steal something. And, we did not qualify last. Now, to the race.
The sun is shining and the dry tyres are on. I'm not going to get fooled here, it may rain later on as this is a long race. We will start on the soft tyre, the compound in the middle of the pack here in Japan, and just use the knowledge we have on it to wring some performance out of the car. Getting the strategy right will be key once it starts to rain...