Silverstone Testing, Day 3
Third and final day for the ING Renault F1 Team at
Silverstone
Nelson Piquet Jr., R27-06, 108 laps, 548 km, best
lap: 1:21.357
ING Renault F1 Team today concluded its three-day testing
programme at Silverstone, as it completed preparations for
the forthcoming British Grand Prix, which will be held at
this circuit in under three weeks.
After two days of work from Heikki Kovalainen, the team continued
its programme with test driver Nelson Piquet Jr. at the wheel
today. Moving forward from the data collected by Heikki, the
young Brazilian firstly worked on set-up to find a comfortable
balance, before beginning the development programme. He conducted
a series of tyre tests to assess their performance and general
consistency.
Nelson had a busy day, completing more than 100 laps, and
the level of performance of the R27 was encouraging. At the
end of the day, he finished fourth-fastest with a best lap
of 1:21.357, having completed 548 km on his return to the
cockpit.
Nelson Piquet Jr: "I was really pleased
to be driving today, because I really enjoy this circuit and
I have always felt good here. I hadn't driven since the last
test in Paul Ricard, and was excited about this week, and
the car was handling well – better than I expected to
be honest. We made good progress with our programme, and collected
interesting data which confirms Heikki's work earlier in the
week. That's a positive sign."
Christian Silk, Chief Test Engineer: "We
rounded the week off with a very good day's work. Nelson settled
in quickly, and felt comfortable straight away, which helped
us make good progress. We had no problems with the car, which
is always satisfying, and continued working with the data
Heikki had collected on the previous days. In overall terms,
this has been a productive and useful test. We can see that
we are making progress step by step, but the other teams are
doing the same, and we know that this isn't the time to take
our foot off the pedal!"
DRIVER TEAM BEST LAPS
1 MASSA Ferrari 1'20.805 87
2 ROSBERG Williams 1'21.274 98
3 ALONSO McLaren 1'21.284 58
4 PIQUET ING Renault F1 Team 1'21.357 108
5 TRULLI Toyota 1'21.703 70
6 COULTHARD Red Bull Racing 1'21.933 69
7 GLOCK BMW 1'22.456 80
8 SPEED Toro Rosso 1'23.049 65
9 ALBERS Spyker 1'23.374 36
10 VAN DER GARDE Spyker 1'25.865 5
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