17 April,2009 05:34 PM IST | | PTI
Giancarlo Fisichella struggled for balance but teammate Adrian Sutil had a strong start to his Chinese Grand Prix campaign with the German clocking the 14th quickest time in the morning and the 11th in the afternoon practice sessions here today.
Fisichella struggled to find a good balance on the VJM02 and was 17th (1:38.460) in the morning session and 20th (1:37.750) in the afternoon.
The lone consolation for him was that he managed 50 laps over the day and gathered a lot of information to improve overnight.
In contrast, Sutil enjoyed a strong day as he set the 14th quickest (1:38.319) time in the morning and 11th (1:36.829) in the afternoon, just over one second from the pace-setting Brawn GP of Jenson Button (1:35.679).
"It is a change to be here at this time of year. We are used to having around 30 degrees here so with the cooler temperatures it's much easier to drive although the tyres take a bit longer to warm up," Sutil said.
"Overall it went OK, we completed our work and the general balance is good. I'm pleased with the position so I think it was a good start," said the German.
Fisichella, understandably, was not equally upbeat. "I'm not particularly happy with how today went. I am struggling with the car balance at the moment.
"It's not consistent just yet and I don't feel entirely comfortable," he said.
"At the moment we don't have a problem with the tyres - in these temperatures we are pretty much OK. We have some ideas of what we can do so I think we will improve tomorrow," said the veteran driver.
Chief race engineer Dominic Harlow said the grip would get better and expects a close qualifying tomorrow.
"The track was quite green today and hence low grip but it will evolve over the next two days and that will be something we have to account for as we approach qualifying and the race.
"It will be another tight qualifying session tomorrow," Harlow said.
