The aforementioned rule was imposed by the International Automobile Federation (FIA) for the new campaign in order to prevent too slower cars from making the grid in 2011. It states that a driver must not be slower than 107 percent of the fastest lap time in qualifying, which would translate into approximately 6 seconds for the Melbourne track.
In the first couple of practice sessions on Friday, Red Bull (P1) and McLaren (P2) have been approximately 8 and 7 seconds faster than the MVR-02, respectively, which made Glock hope that either his team will pick up pace on Saturday, or the leaders will use the harder compounds in Q1 – meaning slower lap times – and allow the Virgin racers to be part of the Sunday action.
“We were running quite a lot of fuel,” said Glock in an interview with German broadcaster Sky, “but I think for us it's going to be tight if we can't get the tires to work. Hopefully in Q1 Red Bull and co. will slow down a little bit and maybe use the hard tire.”
Already the grid for the season opening Australian Grand Prix seems to be decimated, after it was reported that the front wing of Hispania Racing's 2011-spec single-seater has not passed the FIA crash tests. Under the circumstances, the team will run the 2010 car in Melbourne, which is almost 100 percent equal to missing the race.
Hispania settled to do only installation laps during the second practice on Friday, with Vitantonio Liuzzi behind the wheel of last year's car.
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