TEST REPORT BARCELONA – WEEKLY SUMMARY
Date: Thursday 23rd February 2006
Location: Circuit de Catalunya, Spain
Drivers: Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya
Weather: Cold with cloud cover in the morning, clearing during
the afternoon
Track temperature – high of 18.8 degrees Celsius
Air temperature – high of 12.4 degrees Celsius
Laps run: 211
Kilometres covered: Kimi Raikkonen approx. 370km
Juan Pablo Montoya approx. 605km
Best lap time of the week: Jenson Button, Honda Racing, 1m13.933
Total number of laps driven during the test: 475
Total number of km driven during the test: 2198km (Kimi 1087km,
Juan Pablo 1111km)
Duration of test: Three days (21st – 23rd February 2006)
Team McLaren Mercedes' test at the Circuit de Catalunya, in
Barcelona, Spain, ended today with Kimi Raikkonen and Juan
Pablo Montoya completing just under 1000km during the final
session of the week.
Both drivers were continuing the programme for the week,
which had seen the team focus on set-up work alongside putting
significant mileage onto the two MP4-21s that were in Spain.
Juan Pablo set a fastest time of 1m14.587 over the course
of 131 laps, which was the largest total for the day of all
14 drivers on track. Kimi put in a 1m15.475 as he covered
80 laps. Today saw Kimi and Juan Pablo complete 370km and
605km respectively, taking their joint total for the three
day session to 2198km in the two MP4-21s.
Work began on Tuesday at the Circuit de Catalunya, with the
day dominated by cold weather conditions in the morning and
rain in the afternoon, any meaningful running was restricted
to the late morning. Despite this, the Team McLaren Mercedes
drivers covered nearly 400km between them. Kimi only ventured
out on a couple of one lap runs to complete practice launches
in the afternoon.
Wednesday saw the weather improve and after the track had
dried out properly, Kimi and Juan Pablo began racking up the
miles. As always with multi-team tests, running was affected
by red flag stoppages, nine in total on Tuesday caused by
the other teams. Although the track was closed about 20% of
the day, the Team McLaren Mercedes test team had a productive
day covering over 840km without incident, and Kimi topped
the timesheets with a 1m15.224.
Testing will continue next week in Valencia with an MP4-21
and an MP4-20, as the two cars that were being run this week
are returning to the McLaren Technology Centre before leaving
in the freight for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Pedro will be at the wheel of the MP4-21 on Monday 27th February
alongside Gary Paffett in the 20. Kimi will join the test
for Tuesday 28th February and Wednesday 1st March in the MP4-21,
with Pedro taking over duties in the MP4-20 for the final
two days.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA
"We've done a lot of good work this week, there have
been a few problems with the wet weather and a couple of small
glitches with the car, but generally it has been a productive
week. It has also been quite cold here in Barcelona, which
means that you aren't getting the full performance, and also
everyone is testing different things. So it is difficult to
compare the performances of the teams testing here during
the week."
KIMI RAIKKONEN
"I feel that we have improved a lot over the last few
weeks, we are continuing to develop the car to find the speed
and reliability that we need and we are moving in a good direction.
We have covered some really good distances this week in Barcelona,
but we need to keep pushing as there is still work to be done."
Unofficial times*:
Pos Driver Constructor Time Laps
1 Jenson Button Honda Racing 1m13.933 117
2 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 1m13.971 125
3 Fernando Alonso Renault 1m13.977 113
4 Rubens Barrichello Honda Racing 1m14.266 119
5 Juan Pablo Montoya Team McLaren Mercedes 1m14.587 131
6 Kimi Raikkonen Team McLaren Mercedes 1m15.475 80
7 Nico Rosberg WilliamsF1 1m15.775 84
8 Ralf Schumacher Toyota 1m15.971 100
9 David Coulthard Red Bull Racing 1m16.034 54
10 Jarno Trulli Toyota 1m16.056 104
11 Mark Webber WilliamsF1 1m16.128 97
12 Christian Klien Red Bull Racing 1m16.921 55
13 Christijan Albers MF1 Racing 1m17.143 79
14 Takuma Sato Super Aguri 1m19.789 58
*no official times available
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