Barcelona Testing, Day 1,
The ING Renault R1 Team resumes its preparations
in Barcelona
Fernando Alonso R28-01, 61 laps, 281 km, fastest lap: 1'22:889
Nelson Piquet R28-02, 46 laps, 212 km, fastest lap 1'23:367
Having officially unveiled the R28 to the media yesterday
in Paris, the ING Renault F1 Team resumed its winter testing
programme in Barcelona today.
The team was operating a two car programme today for the
first time this year, allowing both Fernando Alonso and Nelson
Piquet to continue with preparations for the new season. Both
drivers, fresh from their appearance in Paris, were in R28s
as the team continues to familiarise itself with the new car.
Fernando had a productive day and concentrated on improving
the balance of the car as the track conditions improved. It
was the chance to add further miles to the car following a
successful shakedown test in Valencia last week. He completed
61 laps with a best time of 1'22:889. Similarly, Nelson spent
the day working on set-up as he continues to adapt to the
R28, covering 46 laps in total.
Fernando Alonso: "It was a really easy
programme today, because on the first day the track is always
dirty and not in very good condition. You need to run at least
one day to get the track into a condition where you can test
important things. Today we put some new parts on the car which
we had introduced in Valencia, and we tried to evaluate them.
Everything was positive and went according to plan, but tomorrow
is when we will start the real programme."
Nelson Piquet: "I am still getting
used to the car, so I spent the day trying to find a good
rhythm. But we had a few disruptions to the programme, which
limited my time in the car and we probably did not get as
much done as we would have liked. But this is only the first
day of running; we still have two days ahead of us, and Fernando
had a good day, which is positive and we are certainly making
progress."
Christian Silk, Chief Test Engineer: "This
test was the first time we have run with two R28s, so it was
an important day and there was a big effort from everyone.
Both drivers had reasonable programmes, but to start with
the balance of the car was poor so we had to spend the day
working on that. By the end of the day we had found a reason
balance and we were quite happy with the performance of the
car. Fernando completed most of his programme, but Nelson
had a few delays, so we can hopefully make some more progress
in the next couple of days.
DRIVER - TEAM - BEST LAPS
1 HAMILTON McLaren 1'22 :263 84
2 ALONSO ING Renault F1 Team 1'22 :889 61
3 KUBICA BMW 1'22 :983 66
4 FISICHELLA Force India 1'23 :015 100
5 HEIDFELD BMW 1'23 :270 53
6 PAFFETT McLaren 1'23 :349 47
7 PIQUET ING Renault F1 Team 1'23 :367 46
8 VETTEL Toro Rosso 1'23 :387 90
9 ROSBERG Williams 1'23 :453 12
10 COULTHARD Red Bull Racing 1'23 :491 60
11 WEBBER Red Bull Racing 1'23 :547 63
12 BOURDAIS Toro Rosso 1'23 :836 65
13 NAKAJIMA Williams 1'23 :955 35
14 BARRICHELLO Honda 1'24 :125 55
15 WURZ Honda 1'26 :975 26
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