Valencia (22/08/2008).- The F1 Telefónica Grand Prix of Europe will be held for the first time on August 24th and has started with the first practice sessions, in which the ING Renault driver, Fernando Alonso, managed to make the second best time in the session.

The Finnish driver, Kimi Raikonnen, who made 30 laps of the circuit, registered the best lap time, followed by the driver from Asturias. Within the same second, the drivers Jenson Button (Honda), Felipe Massa (Ferrari), Lewis Hamilton (McLaren Mercedes), his team mate Heikki Kovalainen and the German driver from the Toyota team, Timo Glock also lapped the circuit.

However, in the morning session, the German driver from Toro Rosso, Sebastian Vettel (1.40.496) surprised everyone with the best time of all the laps around the circuit. Vettel lapped faster than Felipe Massa (1.40.654) and Lewis Hamilton (1.40.822). The French driver, Sebastien Bourdais, Vettel's team mate also had a surprising result (1.41.099) in the free practice sessions.

Alonso said he was satisfied with the evolution of his single seater, because "we didn't start the season very well, the first two races were complicated but since Barcelona we have been fighting to finish in the points and we hope Valencia will be another step forward in our process of improvement".

The Spanish born driver completed 39 laps of the circuit and pointed out "it is a spectacular track. It is a very fast circuit with some very fast straights and hard braking", and also stated that he was "proud to be racing in Spain".

"A new track is always challenging for the drivers", explained the Spanish driver, for who "the most difficult thing was to find the braking points. Corners 12 and 17 are very similar and it is easy to get mixed up when entering. I like the last sector the best, corners 19 and 20, because the side G-force going into the last corner means that you move in the cockpit which is unlike any other circuit in the Championship, and you have to get the line right in the last two corners to come out fast into the home straight".

Furthermore, Flavio Briatore, manager of the ING Renault team gave his: "congratulations to all Valencia for the excellent work that has been done in less than a year. The Valencia Street Circuit is more than a street circuit, the atmosphere is really impressive and this is fantastic for Formula 1". Briatore also underlined the need to combine historical circuits such as Silverstone or the German tracks with new circuits like this one, which is the way Formula 1 needs to go. Along these lines Mario Thiessen, manager of BMW Sauber said that "F1 needs the two types of circuits to find new solutions in order to accommodate people in areas that are already well populated such as this one".

The Polish driver of BMW, Robert Kubica, said that "the first laps were difficult, the braking before the corners is very hard and there are some very fast corners, which means it is a "stop and go" circuit with hard braking and strong accelerating with several places for overtaking although we will have to try and take advantage of any mistakes made by drivers in front".

 

Source: Valmor Sports