Barcelona Testing, Day 1,
ING Renault F1 Team starts winter testing
Heikki Kovalainen R27-06, 81 laps, 377 km, fastest lap: 1'22.802
The ING Renault F1 Team returned to the Circuit de Catalunya
to begin its winter development programme. The 3-day test
session is being held on the Montmelo track and will enable
Heikki Kovalainen, who's driving this week, to familiarise
himself with the new 2008 ECU. The aim of this session is
quite clear: prepare for the Renault team's new season, in
particular in the area of electronics, as this week the team
is running with the new ECU and without traction control and
other aids.
Heikki found his marks very quickly. This morning he worked
on setting up the balance of his car on a very cold track,
and in the afternoon he did a number of long runs to test
the new ECU's reliability. With a total of 81 laps covered
(???kms) the Finn was one of the drivers who spent the most
time on the track enabling him to gather a lot of information
on his first day out. He topped the time sheets for a long
time, and his best lap in 1m 22.802s gave him fourth place
in the overall classification.
So far this first day back has been a very positive one.
The team ran though its programme without meeting any major
difficulties, and did not really suffer from the numerous
interruptions that marked the session. The data recorded today
will be completed tomorrow and already the signs are very
encouraging.
Heikki Kovalainen: "I was very happy
to back driving today. Since Brazil I haven't been out on
the track for several weeks so I was pretty impatient this
morning. I have to say that driving without any assistance,
as was the case today is really great. You have to pay attention
to your driving, your reaccelerating, your tyre wear and behind
the wheel it's fun. We did a good job on our first day back.
The car reacted well to our set-up changes and I think that
between now and Thursday we'll make a lot of progress."
Christian Silk, Test Chief Engineer: "The
day went off well. We've progressed and I think everybody
was happy to back out on the track again. We're going to do
our utmost to prepare for next year's season in the best possible
conditions, and our first day's been very encouraging. We're
going to continue along the same lines tomorrow and Thursday
and we hope to make further progress."
DRIVER - TEAM - BEST LAPS
1 SCHUMACHER Ferrari 1'21.922 64
2 BADOER Ferrari 1'22.129 76
3 DE LA ROSA McLaren 1'22.687 63
4 KOVALAINEN ING Renault F1 Team 1'22.802 81
5 KUBICA BMW 1'22.883 55
6 PAFFETT McLaren 1'23.008 46
7 COULTHARD Red Bull Racing 1'23.159 55
8 NAKAJIMA Williams 1'23.187 66
9 TRULLI Toyota 1'23.624 46
10 HEIDFELD BMW 1'23.671 75
11 ROSBERG Williams 1'23.847 58
12 MONTAGNY Toyota 1'23.861 61
13 VETTEL Toro Rosso 1'24.048 77
14 ZUBER Super Aguri 1'24.065 77
15 BOURDAIS Toro Rosso 1'24.193 51
16 DAVIDSON Super Aguri 1'24.246 70
17 ROSSITER Honda 1'24.480 69
18 CHANDHOK Red Bull Racing 1'24.896 39
19 Van der GARDE Force India 1'25.317 84
20 RODRIGUEZ Force India 1'26.297 87
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