Paul Ricard Testing,
Day one for the Renault F1 Team at the Paul Ricard
fter their win last Sunday in Australia, the Renault F1 Team
stay focused and carry on with their testing programme with
a three day test session this week at the Paul Ricard Circuit.
Heikki Kovalainen was the only Renault driver on track today
but he will be joined tomorrow by Giancarlo Fisichella who
will stay for the duration of the session. The team will have
two R26 chassis running this week.
Kovalainen today's programme was mainly focused on the development
of the a new engine evolution as well as an important tyre
programme with Michelin in order to prepare the first European
meeting, in Imola in two weeks time.
To take benefit of the two cars available today and optimize
his time at the wheel, Heikki Kovalainen ran the two chassis
today. He was able to complete 137 laps. After a productive
opening day, he set the fastest time of the day in 1: 04.927.
Christian Silk, Chief Test Engineer: "We've
had quite a busy day with two cars to run with just one driver!
We had a few small problems today but they did not delay our
programme. We worked on interesting directions for the first
European races. We completed an important programme of tyre
testing today and Heikki seemed quite happy with it"
DRIVER - TEAM - BEST LAPS
1 KOVALAINEN Renault 1 :04.927 137
2 DE LA ROSA McLaren 1 :05.028 50
3 KUBICA BMW 1 :05.075 150
4 ZONTA Toyota 1 :05.291 142
5 PAFFET McLaren 1 :05.534 84
6 PANIS Toyota 1 :05.754 109
7 VILLENEUVE BMW 1 :05.812 93
8 DOORNBOS Red Bull 1:06.420 58
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