Australian GP: Caterham adamant it will run in final practice

Kamui Kobayashi and Marcus Ericsson completed three laps between them during the two 90-minute sessions in Melbourne on Friday as the team was hit by problems it had not encountered during testing.

The severity of the issues created some doubt about if the team would be able to get its CT05s ready to complete some mileage on Saturday morning, but both drivers are convinced that they will be in action.

When asked in the paddock if he was concerned about running in FP3, Kobayashi said: "No, I'm not worried because the guys found out the problem.

"We had a problem with the fuel line [leading to a fire] which normally we would have found during the winter test.

"Now one hour is what we have [before qualifying]. We need to use efficiency."

Free practice 1 session report

Team-mate Marcus Ericsson, who suffered problems with the car's MGU-K in the morning and a hydraulic leak in the afternoon session, backed up Kobayashi's claims.

"We should be fine to be out for FP3, the boys are working hard," said the Swedish rookie.

"Because we haven't done any running it will make the weekend very difficult, but we just need to do as many laps as possible and see where we are."

NEW PROBLEMS

Both drivers added that it was frustrating to be hit by problems that did not occur during testing, where Caterham seemed to be able to log decent mileage on several of the days.

"In winter testing our mileage was not as much as usual so we have problems which normally we would have found during the winter," said Kobayashi.

Ericsson added: "It's been a frustrating day because the second week in Bahrain was really good.

"The car seemed to be working really well, but then today we've been having new problems. We had so much planned and we needed laps."