The Marussia F1 Team head off to Spain for the start of the European season in the 2012 Formula 1 calendar year. They’ll be fighting for every second at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona and are looking to build on some the momentum that saw them improving with every lap at the last few Grand Prix’s.

The teams have already spent the day completing the Friday practise session and apart from some minor balancing issues with the MR01, Timo Glock and Charles Pic successfully worked their way through a busy programme of areodynamic evaluations and setup work.

Timo Glock #24
“To be honest we’ve had two pretty difficult sessions today as we’ve struggled with the balance of the car. It’s been very nervous on both sets of tyres so a little disappointing that we seem to still have this problem. We’ll just have to take a good look at the data and see what we can find to improve the situation for tomorrow.”

Charles Pic #25
“I am quite happy with the way today has been. We made good progress across the two sessions and I feel the benefit of the new update. I think there is more we can find overnight to prepare us for qualifying, but generally it feels like we can have a good rest of the weekend. A good start I think.”

John Booth, Team Principal
“We always said that whilst we were pleased with our test in Mugello, a better barometer of how much our updates would improve our car’s performance would be once we got to a more representative circuit such as this one. We don’t feel that we have made the best start today and there is a slight air of disappointment as a result, however we must stay focused as it will only be after qualifying tomorrow that we will be able to make a full assessment of our the step. Overall we can be pleased that the reliability of the car has been good and allowed us to complete our set-up and aero programmes today. The results of our aerodynamic tests in FP1 can now be applied across both cars for FP3 tomorrow. Neither driver is 100% happy with the balance so far, however I’m sure that time spent looking at the data tonight will allow for improved set-ups in the morning.”

Quotes sourced from Marussia F1 Team PR statement.

Good luck for the Race this weekend Marussia We’ll be supporting you all the way.