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  • Double retirement in Austria for Force India

     

     It was a weekend to forget for Force India in Austria as both Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg failed to see the chequered flag.

    Perez was languishing in the midfield when he had a failure at the rear of his car and ended up in the wall. This went largely unnoticed due to the battle between the Mercedes’ of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton taking the attention of the cameras. Meanwhile Hulkenberg struggled with his tyres from the start.

    He dropped from P2 on the grid and was hit by graining issues on his tyres almost immediately, before retiring a handful of laps before the end of the race.

    MELBOURNE (AUSTRALIA) – 19/03/2016
    © FOTO STUDIO COLOMBO PER PIRELLI MEDIA (© COPYRIGHT FREE)

     

    This weekend was a large contrast to last time out in Baku where Perez and the team were celebrating a third podium in three races.

    There was cause for optimism before the weekend with the upgrades the team made paying off and seeing the team taking podiums. These thoughts were amplified when Hulkenberg qualified third behind the Silver Arrows duo.

    He was promoted to second thanks to Rosberg’s gearbox penalty but got a poor start and was overtaken by Jenson Button at turn one. Over the next few laps the Ferrari’s and the Red Bull’s got past Nico, thus the end of his points chances. He retired the car to save the power unit a few laps before the end of the race.

    Meanwhile Perez qualified poorly, starting 16th he made his way up the grid and was fighting for points when coming into the last lap he went off into the barriers at turn three. It appeared to be a brake issue as he went straight on and seemed unable to slow his VJM09 down.

    Overall not the weekend the team wanted, and with the next race being right in their backyard at Silverstone, they’ll be keen to make sure this is a minor blip in what appears to be the season of resurgence for Force India.

  • Marquez Quick, Pedrosa Struck Down by Fever

    Marc Marquez is proving why he is world champion, with a solid 2nd place accomplished on day 2 of testing at Phillip Island. The Repsol Honda man couldn’t overcome the pace of Maverick Vinales, Marquez worked on set-up of the bike and race pace.

    The reigning champion worked solidly, completing a total of 107 laps, and rounded off the session with two long runs of 15 laps each, gaining valuable data in order for the team to work on improving the machine before the season opener at Losail, Qatar.

    “It’s been a day of really hard work, and I’m a little bit tired, but it was the plan we had for today with the team and we did it! Together with my engineers we decided to do many laps to try a few things, and we focused on riding as consistently as possible, trying to avoid any mistakes”. He went on, saying the importance of the two long runs, but also said that he isn’t where he wants to be.

    “I also did two long runs at the end of the day, to try different configurations of the electronics, and that allowed us to gather a lot of information. Anyway, as I said yesterday, we’re still missing something, because I’m not 100% comfortable, but we’re working in a good way. Hopefully these two long runs will allow us to find the areas where we can take a step forward.

    The Repsol Honda man also tried a new tyre, with the vision of trying another one for the rear tomorrow. “I also tried a new Michelin front tire and tomorrow we’ll try the rear one, as today we had no time to do it.”

    Dani Pedrosa struggled throughout the day with a fever. Completing 40 laps, the Spaniard set his best on lap 38, before calling it a day. The winner of the San Marinese Grand Prix at Misano last year has struggled throughout winter testing, but also struggles at this circuit, as his weight hinders him from getting any significant heat in the tyres.

    “Unfortunately, near the end of yesterday’s session I started feeling a bit strange and things got worse overnight, he began. This morning I couldn’t have breakfast as I wasn’t feeling good in my stomach and I had a bit of a fever and no strength.

    “I could eat absolutely nothing until around 2 o’clock, so I just waited. I tried to do some laps in the afternoon, starting slowly, and although I improved a little lap by lap, I didn’t push hard.

    Despite the hardships, Pedrosa is wishing for a healthier and faster final day at The Island: “Anyway, now I’m feeling better and hopefully tomorrow I’ll be in better shape for the final day of the test.”

    Both Repsol Honda riders will be back out on track tomorrow for the final day of testing.

    Kiko Giles @MotoGPKiko