Formula One news

Dramatic Friday for Grosjean

Romain Grosjean had an eventful day on Friday as his Renault experienced several off-track excursions at Yas Marina. Thankfully for the Frenchman, his car escaped unharmed as he finished second practice eighteenth fastest, two places behind World Champion team-mate Fernando Alonso.

With Alonso set to race with Renault for the last time this weekend and Grosjean's future unknown, the diamond marque could be seen with an entirely fresh line-up in 2010, with Robert Kubica having already confirmed that he will be making the move from BMW.

"The circuit is very nice and it feels like there are two different parts," Grosjean described. "The first part is like a 'normal' track and the second part, including the third sector, has a lot of 90-degree corners which are very challenging. I quite like Sectors 1 and 2 but not Sector 3, as you cannot afford to make any mistakes there." Turn 17 proved a particular challenge for Romain, who ran wide more than once at the right-hander in front of the 5-star Yas Hotel.

Alonso has racked up half of his Grand Prix wins with Renault

"These very different sectors are a challenge when it comes to setting up the car. Also, the temperature difference between the sessions played a relatively big role in today's programme as we ran on the track during the day and the night, which allowed us to see what it will be like for the race. Now I'm look forward to tomorrow and building on today's work."

"We tried a lot of different things and made some good progress by concentrating on getting good grip and traction in the low-speed corners," Ferrari-bound Alonso added. "As we expected, the track was a bit dirty to begin with but when more rubber was laid down I started to get a good feeling for the circuit and the car. We have a lot of information to look over tonight so that we can make some changes in the morning to find some more performance from the car before qualifying."

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