There were top ten times in Friday's very wet practice for Kimi Raikkonen, Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso...
Lotus F1:
Kimi Raikkonen: "It was wet. It's a shame we don't have more wet tyres to be able to get more track time, but if it's going to rain for the whole weekend then everybody tries to save their allocation. We were able to test certain things so it wasn't a total waste of time. It was interesting to see the new section of the track; it's only a few corners so it doesn't make too much difference to a lap. Hopefully tomorrow the weather will be a bit better. Even if it is wet again, everyone will go out in practice and in qualifying so we should see a drier line emerge. When there are only a couple of cars running this doesn't happen and there's much more chance of aquaplaning, but with everyone out there it should be much better."
Romain Grosjean: "It wasn't the busiest day ever due to the weather conditions but still FP1 went well. The car looks to be good and consistent. We tested a few new aero parts which have worked pretty well. I also learnt that the old part of the circuit has a bit more grip than the new part. At the end of FP1 this morning it was incredibly wet and the same conditions at the start of FP2 so we had to wait and be patient. I would have liked to have more track time but due to the regulations on tyres we didn't want to use up all our wet tyre allocation as more rain is expected on Saturday and Sunday. We looked at putting inters on but it wasn't dry enough so we couldn't really do many laps this afternoon. The conditions were a shame for the fans out there who came to watch us today, but we always appreciate their support."
Force India:
Nico Hulkenberg: "A very limited programme today to avoid running on such a wet track with a high risk of aquaplaning. The only time we felt we could learn anything was in the final half hour of the afternoon session so we remained in the garage for most of the day. The forecast for the rest of the weekend looks very mixed so I think we have a challenging weekend ahead of us."
Paul di Resta: "Very difficult conditions today, but sometimes you get weather like this. So we had to be patient and choose our moments because the track conditions were so poor with lots of rivers running across the circuit. We didn't really change the car all day, so we will start with the same set-up tomorrow morning. I certainly feel for the fans who missed out on seeing much action today, but it was great to see so many people come along on a Friday."
Ferrari:
Fernando Alonso: "There's very little I can say this afternoon, or at least even less than usual for a Friday. We did very few laps because of the rain and the fact that, with the number of sets of rain tyres limited by the regulations, there was no sense in doing more running. Rather, it was better to save tyres, given that the forecast is definitely not encouraging, as it is meant to rain all weekend. In other circumstances, if the rest of the weekend was meant to be dry maybe, then we could have done more running, but in these conditions, as I said, that really wasn't the case. In the wet, the car seems okay, but it's practically impossible to say where we are compared to the others. Tomorrow morning, let's hope we can at least do a few laps in the dry so as to least have a rough idea of the behaviour of the Soft and Hard compounds that Pirelli has brought here. The off track moment towards the end? The car was aquaplaning and it got away from me. A shame about the front wing and now we must see if we can repair it."
Felipe Massa: "The weather made this a difficult day. It rained all the time and upset our workload therefore we decided therefore to do only a little running to save tyres for tomorrow and Sunday. Obviously this meant we were not able to test the way we wanted, especially when it came to the small updates we have brought to this Grand Prix. I did only three timed laps, so it's impossible to say anything about how the F2012 is behaving on this track. Tomorrow, regardless of the conditions, we will try and do more laps to be as well prepared as possible for qualifying and the race. We will try and do what we can."
Williams:
Pastor Maldonado: "We didn't get chance to do a lot of running today but everybody is in the same situation. We didn't try too many things with the set-up today but we used the time to see how the track conditions were. There was a lot of aquaplaning, but the car feels quite good despite not getting the chance to run on a wet set-up. If it's like this all weekend, we'll just need to make some decisions tomorrow ahead of qualifying."
Bruno Senna: "Unfortunately we didn't have a very productive day in the end. The weather was poor weather with puddles on the track during second practice. On my second run, I aquaplaned on some deep water at the high speed Becketts section of the track and from that point was I a passenger until the car hit the wall. It was quite a heavy accident but I am ok. There is a lot of damage to the car but the Williams team will, I'm sure, do a great job of getting it back into shape for tomorrow."
Related Links
Hamilton quickest at rain-soaked Silverstone
Friday's gallery from Silverstone
