Bourdais surprised by lack of speed

The Italian squad are finally introducing their new car, the STR3, at this weekend's grand prix after it was delayed following a crash during testing.

But the new car failed to show competitive pace in today's practice, with Bourdais finishing down in 18th position.

The four-time ChampCar champion warned not to read much into his times, but he confessed he was expecting more speed.

"It was a case of finding out about the new car which was always going to be difficult on this demanding track," said the Frenchman. "We always ran with a heavy fuel load so we should not read anything into the laptimes. We are not where we want to be but I don't think we are as far behind as it might look.

"However, I was expecting us to be in slightly better shape than this, which means Saturday and Sunday are going to be interesting.

"We are lacking a bit of grip, maybe because we lack a little downforce in this maximum downforce set-up, which our top speeds would also suggest. At least my past experience here has been a help and this morning I got into a rhythm quite quickly."

Teammate Sebastian Vettel, slowest in the afternoon, said he had to fight with the car around the twisty track, and admitted the team were not sure on the direction to follow.

"Certainly not the best first two sessions of a race weekend," he said. "It is the first time we have had the new car at a race, so it was always going to be difficult to know what to expect and I seemed to struggle a lot. I was fighting with the car on a circuit that I have always liked in the past.

"I have nothing against street circuits; quite the opposite in fact. We were struggling to find the right direction to go in, but by the end of the second session we made a step forward but it is not yet enough."