Although the Australian Grand Prix may be the first race for the Caterham brand, Friday practice marked a continuation from testing as Heikki Kovalainen trialled a new front wing. Having been placed as high as second when conditions were improving, the Finn and team-mate Vitaly Petrov ended the day in eighth and 13th places.
“The car felt good from the first proper run this morning and we found that the baseline we had set over the winter carried over exactly as we had planned into today's practice sessions,” Kovalainen confirmed. “It's a shame that the conditions today meant that we couldn't test the tyres more, but that's the same for everyone, so the main thing was that we had a good balance all day and kept improving the setup in both sessions.
“It's also good to see that the new spec front wing that we ran both this morning and this afternoon is giving more grip overall, so that's another positive step forward and puts us in good shape for tomorrow.”
Melbourne is Petrov’s first race with the squad, having been dropped by Renault.
“That was a reasonable day for me,” the Russian began. “The weather meant we weren't able to try too much with the setups and we had a small problem this morning that cut short the final run, but one of the main things for me today is that I feel very comfortable with the team. We're quickly building up a good relationship between myself and the engineers.”
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Vitaly Petrov
Heikki Kovalainen
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  M. Schumacher | Mercedes | 01:29.183 | 16 |
| 2. | N. Hulkenberg | Force India | 01:29.292 | 19 |
| 3. | S. Perez | Sauber | 01:30.199 | 23 |
| 4. | F. Alonso | Ferrari | 01:30.341 | 13 |
| 5. | K. Kobayashi | Sauber | 01:30.709 | 14 |
| 6. | P. di Resta | Force India | 01:31.466 | 13 |
| 7. | F. Massa | Ferrari | 01:31.505 | 14 |
| 8. | H. Kovalainen | Caterham | 01:31.932 | 16 |
| 9. | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | 01:32.184 | 17 |
| 10. | S. Vettel | Red Bull | 01:32.194 | 19 |
| Full results | ||||
| Heikki Kovalainen | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| More Heikki Kovalainen photos | |||
| Vitaly Petrov | |||
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| More Vitaly Petrov photos | |||
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