Formula One news

Sauber struggles with oversteer

Sauber Petronas drivers Jacques Villeneuve and Felipe Massa finished 16th and 18th respectively after today's first practice sessions for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

"I had oversteer all day," Villeneuve said. "Normally that doesn't disturb me too much, but there was enough of it to make the car difficult to drive quickly. Otherwise it wasn't too bad, it just lacked pace. At the end I had to spin to avoid a Jordan in the corner before the pit entry; I don't know who it was but they seemed to get a bit confused when they saw blue flags and just braked, so I had to go off to avoid them."
Felipe Massa commented, "The car was good this morning when the track was still very green and slippery. We kept the same set of tyres on for part of this afternoon's session, and by then the car was really oversteering, so as we put on a new set of tyres we also adjusted the set-up to make the handling more neutral. Unfortunately we went a little too far and after that I had bad understeer and couldn't do a decent lap. It was difficult out there." 

Team chief Peter Sauber added, "As usual here the track conditions changed a lot between the two sessions, and so far we have yet to find an optimum set-up for either car."

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