Barcelona Testing, Day 2,
The ING Renault F1 Team continues its final pre-season
test in Barcelona
Fernando Alonso, R28-03, 79 laps, 368 km, fastest lap: 1'23.112
Nelson Piquet, R28-01, 45 laps, 209 km, fastest lap: 1'23.467
The ING Renault F1 Team remained at the Circuit de Catalunya
near Barcelona today to continue with its final week of pre-season
testing. The day began with cloudy and cool conditions, but
the sun came out in the afternoon allowing the team to continue
with its preparations for the new season in ideal conditions.
The team was running two R28s with Fernando Alonso and Nelson
Piquet remaining in the cars for a second day. Having worked
on race procedures and pit stops yesterday, the team switched
its attention to working on the performance of the cars today.
Fernando spent the day running through an aero programme
and tried various things with the car, while Nelson resumed
the set-up work he had begun at the end of yesterday. Fernando
completed a total of 79 laps while Nelson covered 45. For
the final day tomorrow the team will make a final push in
the last day of running and will continue practicing race
procedures to be ready for the opening race of the season
in three weeks time.
Fernando Alonso: "It was a good day,
especially as it was dry for the whole day. We continued testing
the latest parts and updates before Melbourne and it was a
good time to check that everything is working well. We still
need to find some performance in the car, but we have the
potential and we just need to discover it. There is only one
day of testing left, and we need to fully attack tomorrow
to make the most of it."
Nelson Piquet: "We did not complete
as many laps as we would have liked, but it was still a productive
day and we learnt some things in the morning and gathered
some interesting data. As a rookie, time in the car is so
valuable and everytime I drive the car I feel more and more
comfortable. For sure it would be nice to have some more time
to prepare for the first race, but we have made the most of
the time we had available. We are back to race simulations
tomorrow, and if we have time we will try and do some long
runs."
Christian Silk, Chief Test Engineer: "Good
circuit conditions today, so we could get on with our programmes.
We had some interesting stuff to try that had arrived from
the factory and we go some good results from that. We also
did some aerodynamic development and some chassis set-up work,
which gave some positive results. So another good day's work,
and we'll take that into tomorrow and continue with our preparations
for the first race in Melbourne. "
DRIVER - TEAM - BEST LAPS
1 HAMILTON McLaren 1'21.234 82
2 KOVALAINEN McLaren 1'21.434 71
3 RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1'21.722 72
4 ROSBERG Williams 1'22.309 75
5 MASSA Ferrari 1'22.513 102
6 FISICHELLA Force India 1'22.516 102
7 VETTEL Red Bull Racing 1'22.558 110
8 KUBICA BMW 1'22.625 96
9 BUTTON Honda 1'22.659 67
10 LIUZZI Force India 1'22.942 89
11 NAKAJIMA Williams 1'22.977 100
12 TRULLI Toyota 1'23.112 98
13 ALONSO ING Renault F1 Team 1'23.112 79
14 BARRICHELLO Honda 1'23.159 74
15 HEIDFELD BMW 1'23.284 77
16 BOURDAIS Toro Rosso 1'23.323 98
17 WEBBER Red Bull Racing 1'23.458 58
18 PIQUET ING Renault F1 Team 1'23.467 45
19 GLOCK Toyota 1'23.561 80
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