• Hungarian Grand Prix - FP2

Sutil happy with diffuser, struggling with tyres

Adrian Sutil was using a blown diffuser with low-mounted exhausts © Sutton Images

Enlarge

Related Links

• Report:
• Ferrari fights back in free practice 2
  

• Race:
• Hungarian Grand Prix

• Championship:
• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Drivers:
• Tonio Liuzzi
• |
• Adrian Sutil

• Teams:
• Racing Point

Despite struggling for pace during Friday's practice sessions, Force India is confident it has made progress with its new blown diffuser.

Adrian Sutil's car was fitted with the new floor for Friday practice, as the team follows in the steps of Red Bull, Ferrari and other leading teams in introducing the concept. Sutil sat out for much of the second session with an unrelated problem but said the track time he did get was useful for the team.

"Today my main goal was to get as much running as possible with the new blown diffuser," he said. "We made very good progress in this regard and didn't have any real problems with it, which is a major achievement given how big a component it is to introduce. It seemed to work quite well with the various mappings, and also the temperatures look under control so we can be quite confident in it."

However Sutil admitted there was still a wider problem for the team with the tyres and that accounted for his 16th place finish.

"We are struggling a little on the softer tyre and neither Tonio nor myself could improve from the hard tyre," he added. "There doesn't seem to be a peak with it, unlike the hard tyre that you know will peak and come in, but it's much more difficult to understand where we are with the soft one."

Tonio Liuzzi back in 18th had the same issues, but is still optimistic about qualifying.

"It was very slippery in places but it should improve for tomorrow as more rubber gets laid down," he said. "For now the balance is quite good, particularly on the hard tyre, but we need to understand why we didn't improve on the soft compound. It's going to be a tough weekend for us, but we've done some productive running today and will look at everything overnight to try and find some more time tomorrow."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.