Formula One news

Sauber confident after practice

Sauber Petronas drivers Felipe Massa and Jacques Villeneuve finished this afternoon's practice session for the Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai in 10th and 17th positions respectively. 

"I had to back off on one lap near the end because of yellow flags, but that happened while we were on a long run so it wasn't really a problem and I did my best lap on the next one, which was my last," Villeneuve said. "The grip was getting better all day, having been very low to begin with this morning. We still have some set-up work to do, but it was okay."

Felipe Massa commented, "On the long runs the car was getting better each lap as the fuel weight went down and the grip improved. The handling was consistent, which bodes well for the race. On new tyres the balance was not so good; I got understeer in the slow corners and oversteer in the high-speed ones, so we need to hone the set-up further for qualifying."

Team chief Peter Sauber added, "We concentrated mainly on comparison of the two available tyre options, and amassing the necessary empirical data to assist our decision. We were able to do a lot of laps and we made decent progress, so it was a good Friday."

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