Paul Ricard Testing, Day 1
The Renault F1 Team gets back to testing after the opening
races of the 2006 season.
After a successful start to the 2006 season, the Renault
F1 Team test team returned to the track this week in Paul
Ricard, to pursue the R26 development programme. A busy first
day of three in the South of France saw Heikki Kovalainen
in action in chassis R26-04.
Where the winter testing programme had focused on preparing
the R26-RS26 package for the opening flyaway races, attention
has now turned to the European campaign, beginning with the
San Marino Grand Prix on 23 April. The focus of the team's
efforts may have shifted, but the effort and workload remain
as intensive as throughout the winter months.
Heikki Kovalainen completed a major tyre development programme
with Michelin today, in preparation for the European races.
It proved an interesting day, with plenty of data collected
and at the end of which the Finn took fastest time of the
day.
Christian Silk, Chief Test Engineer: "After
overnight rain, the poor track conditions this morning meant
we couldn't begin our programme immediately, so we began by
completing some basic checks with this brand new chassis.
As soon as the track had improved enough, we worked on tyre
development and chassis set-up. I think we found some good
directions, and we need to check these tomorrow before recommending
them to the race team. The car ran very well today, and we
found a good balance straight away. It was certainly a very
positive day for the team."
DRIVER - TEAM - BEST LAPS
1 KOVALAINEN Renault 1 :04.466 161
2 DE LA ROSA McLaren 1 :04.866 169
3 KUBICA BMW 1 :04.970 144
4 PAFFET McLaren 1 :05.874 71
5 R.SCHUMACHER Toyota 1 :06.311 79
6 ZONTA Toyota 1 :07.060 40
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