Sakhir testing, Day 2
Testing continues for the ING Renault F1 Team in
Bahrain.
Giancarlo Fisichella, R27-01, 107 laps, 573 km, best lap:
1'31.967
Heikki Kovalainen, R27-03, 29 laps, 155 km, best lap: 1'32.068
The ING Renault F1 Team today continued its test programme
at Bahrain's Sakhir circuit, on the penultimate day of the
team's pre-season test programme.
After a disrupted first day of testing following Heikki Kovalainen's
accident during yesterday's running, the team's efforts today
were split between repairing the damaged chassis and pursuing
its development programme. By the end of the day, both goals
had been reached, with a total of 136 laps completed –
equating to over two full race distances.
Giancarlo Fisichella's second day of testing this week aimed
to build upon the programme he began yesterday. His work focused
on handling work, with several relatively long runs during
the later part of the morning session, before conducting set-up
and tyre testing in the second part of the day. The Italian
once again made encouraging progress, and finished the day
fourth-fastest with a lap of 1:31.967 and 107 laps completed.
Heikki Kovalainen did not begin running until after lunch,
as repairs to chassis R27-03 were completed. The technical
team performed with its usual professionalism to completely
rebuild the car overnight, and the Finn commenced his programme
at 13:30 local time. Following an installation lap and systems
checks, Heikki was able to work on set-up solutions for the
R27. In spite of his limited mileage, he finished the day
6th fastest with a best lap of 1:32.068. He completed 29 laps
in total.
Giancarlo Fisichella: "I did lots of
laps today, and that meant we made some good progress with
the programme. I think we got some good results on the long
runs as well as our performance work, so I am quite pleased.
We will try and build on this work tomorrow during the final
day of pre-season testing. It will be an important day."
Heikki Kovalainen: "I was pleased to
be able to get back out on track this afternoon. The mechanics
have done a fantastic job to repair the car so quickly, and
a big thank you to the team for their efforts. It was important
to run again today, and I was focused on getting the jobs
done we needed to, to minimise the amount of lost time. We
got some interesting results this afternoon, and now we need
to make the most of our final day in order to wrap things
up before Melbourne."
Christian Silk concluded: "We made
some good progress with our programme today, which was primarily
focused on set-up testing. Giancarlo found some very encouraging
solutions, and it looks quite encouraging. They confirm the
choices we have made in recent weeks, and confirm that we
have made some good progress in our understanding of the tyres
and the car's handling. Heikki was able to get back out on
track once the car had been repaired, which was positive.
The team did a sterling job to get the car ready, Heikki was
comfortable straight away, and pleased with the progress he
made. All in all, it was a very positive day."
DRIVER TEAM BEST LAPS
1 MASSA Ferrari 1'30.640 99
2 HAMILTON McLaren 1'31.178 55
3 RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1'31.490 93
4 FISICHELLA Renault 1'31.967 107
5 DE LA ROSA McLaren 1'31.971 52
6 KOVALAINEN Renault 1'32.068 29
7 HEIDFELD BMW 1'32.254 71
8 BUTTON Honda 1'32.293 70
9 LIUZZI Toro Rosso 1'32.359 47
10 KUBICA BMW 1'32.648 52
11 BARRICHELLO Honda 1'32.650 59
12 SATO Super Aguri 1'32.837 99
13 SCHUMACHER Toyota 1'33.054 84
14 COULTHARD Red Bull Racing 1'33.146 51
15 WEBBER Red Bull Racing 1'33.238 52
16 TRULLI Toyota 1'33.384 33
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