Paul Ricard Testing, Day 1
Day 1 of three at Paul Ricard for the Renault F1
Team.
In the sunny climes of the south of France, the Renault F1
Team today began a three day testing programme at Paul Ricard
circuit, with Fernando Alonso and Heikki Kovalainen running
in the R26 this week.
With the track in "Monaco" configuration, the Renault
drivers naturally worked on preparations for the Monaco GP.
After a few set up changes this morning, Fernando Alonso
focused on tyre testing during the afternoon to finalize the
tyre selection for the next race.
Heikki Kovalainen today ran with the brand new R26-06 chassis,
in which he initially conducted basic systems checks. He then
began his development programme which was mainly composed
of general tyre testing.
At the end of the day, Fernando Alonso had set the fastest
laptime in 1'05.686, while his teammate completed a mammoth
total of 174 laps on his way to the fourth-fastest laptime
of the session in 1'05.889.
Christian Silk, Chief Test Engineer: "Our
first day was very positive: we were able to follow our programme
without any problem and we identified some interesting solutions.
We worked on the preparation for Monaco and especially on
the tyre testing. We covered a lot of laps, we were quick
and we made good progress on both cars. It was a good day
of testing."
DRIVER - TEAM - BEST LAPS
1 ALONSO Renault 1'05.686 143
2 MASSA Ferrari 1'05.707 128
3 TRULLI Toyota 1'05.752 117
4 KOVALAINEN Renault 1'05.889 174
5 RAIKKONEN McLaren 1'05.996 68
6 MONTOYA McLaren 1'06.177 102
7 HEIDFELD BMW 1'06.466 100
8 KUBICA BMW 1'06.586 124
9 SPEED Toro Rosso 1'06.725 151
10 R. SCHUMACHER Toyota 1'07.009 104
11 KLIEN Red Bull 1'07.016 65
12 DOORNBOS Red Bull 1'07.760 83
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