Saturday: Caterham hopes for a lot

Charles Pic: 14th and 19th

We made a lot of changes to the car overnight and started the third free practice session with an installation lap on wet tires since the track had much more water than the previous day. Midway through the session, the conditions improved sufficiently for us to go back out, and we completed a seven-lap stint, again on wet tires, which provides us with more information for tomorrow. Ten minutes before the end, a drying line started to appear. So, we went out for a performance run on intermediates. It was okay, but we knew there was more in store for us in qualifying.

The rain was still falling at the start of the qualifying session, but not enough for wet tires. So we went out quickly with everyone else to maximize our time on intermediates. It was very difficult, but I am happy with my final position. We had a car balance issue during the last three races. We worked a lot on that, and this weekend, it’s going well. So I am thrilled with my final time in Q1. The main goal was to be ahead of our closest rivals, and we did it, keeping a new set of intermediates in reserve. So we are heading into what could be a fantastic race tomorrow. If it continues to rain like this, we might have a chance to reclaim the tenth place in the championship.

Giedo van der Garde – 16th and 20th

The third practice session was obviously very wet. We therefore paid attention to our plan to ensure we kept tires for Sunday. In general, the car behaved well with both the wet and intermediate tires. We tried a few different setups, and when we switched to intermediates for the last stint, it was clearly faster but I didn’t get a clean lap. Even with the time we ended the session with, I was still optimistic about what we could achieve in qualifying.

In Q1, we immediately went out with intermediates but during my fastest lap, I made a mistake in sector 2, which cost me quite a bit of time. The balance of the car wasn’t great but I think there’s always more to come but not enough to make it to Q2 today. Now, the only thing that matters is tomorrow. We saved a set of intermediates for tomorrow. So, we are in a good position in terms of available tires. Our car is good in the rain, I really like this weather and we all know what we have to do. We’ve already been in this situation, on this track, and under these circumstances. So we know what we have to do on Sunday. Honestly, I’m excited to be there. It’s going to be super tense but that’s why we’re here.