Jean-Marc Finot: “Reproduce what we did in Portimão”

Jean-Marc Finot, what assessment do you draw from the qualifications for Peugeot in Spa?

We are where we thought we were. Spa is a track that we are discovering with this car. We used the first two Free Practice sessions to adapt to it. For the third, it was difficult to draw conclusions because of the conditions. We did our flying laps quite early in case of a red flag. We were on the tire peak quite early and we didn't necessarily take advantage of the best track. The gap does not particularly surprise us. We find the order of difference that we saw at Portimao and Sebring, taking into account all the parameters that may have changed. Knowing that in Portimão we had the advantage of knowing the track.

Is Spa more to your advantage compared to the first two?

Compared to Sebring, yes. The fact that Spa is a typical smooth track F1 does not ask questions about the sensitivity of ground effect. Compared to Portimão, there are fewer low-speed corners which are quite handicapping in terms of traction. Despite everything, we still have to acquire knowledge on this track and we are gaining some.

There was rain during Free Practice 3. It was the first time you faced it in competition. How did the car perform?

We had the opportunity to do sessions at Paul-Ricard where we went there to find the sun and where we finally had rain. We found we did pretty well under these conditions.

What do you expect from the race?

Reproduce what we did in Portimão, so six hours without returning to the pits. On a circuit like Spa, a lot of things can happen. We have to be there to seize the right opportunities.

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