CIRCUIT DE BARCELONA-CATALUNYA | Stoffel Vandoorne has had a really tough day of testing today in Montmeló. The Belgian driver suffered, at noon, a problem with the pipe of the car has made him lose many hours and he has only been able to complete 37 laps, being the second car with less mileage of the day.
His pace, however, was being good until they had the trouble with the car. His time, a 1:20.325 set during the morning, has made him the third quickest driver of the day.
After the session ended, the 2015 GP2 Series champion has shared his thoughts with the media: “Obviously, it’s very nice to get back on the car after the winter, that was positive. This morning, with the weather conditions, it was very cold and damp on the circuit so we took a bit to get the running started. We had the opportunity to gather some aero data.” Said about his general feelings on his first day into the car.
“Then, with better conditions, we managed to do a few proper runs and try to understand a bit more the car we have this year. And, yeah, the stints were very positive. We felt very comfortable, no surprises and some good learning.” He told about the stints he did in the morning, on which he put the hypersoft tyre and set the third fastest time.
Unfortunately, we had a small issue with the exhaust pipe just after lunch. The exhaust blew a lot of hot air in some of the wires and one of them broke, so the team took time to do cautionary checks and it took a bit longer than expected.” Said about the issues that stopped him to go on track during the afternoon. “In the end it’s been a positive day, with a lot of things learnt. It was not a big problem.”
“So far, very positive,” He told regarding the new engine. “There’s really no big things to say. Everything feels nice and very good. The settings we changed are working as expected. Nothing much to tell so far.”
“I just put it for the temperature,” He replied when asked about the decision of putting hypersoft tyres. “Today it’s very difficult to switch on the tyres and, obviously, a softer compound made it a little bit easier. The conditions today are not really representative of what we’re going to get during the season.”
