Jerez Test – Day 1
Location: Circuito Permanente de Jerez, Spain
Drivers: Franck Montagny, Kohei Hirate
Track length: 4.428km
ALL CHANGE
Panasonic Toyota Racing began its three-day test at the Circuito
Permanente de Jerez in Spain today with a new combination
of drivers as 2007 third driver Franck Montagny was joined
by Toyota Young Driver Programme rising star Kohei Hirate.
Montagny will join Toyota full-time in January but took the
opportunity to become more familiar with the team, bringing
his wealth of experience to a test which focused on increasing
the team's understanding of the 2007 Bridgestone tyres. In
contrast, Hirate was taking part in his first full Formula
1 test and spent the morning learning about the car. The 20-year-old
made his debut soon after the track opened, driving out of
the garage at 9.07am on a circuit still damp from overnight
rain. During the course of the morning he worked on getting
used to a Formula 1 car, with minor adjustments to make him
comfortable in the cockpit, before getting the chance to spend
longer on the track. Hirate's first timed laps put him alongside
more experienced drivers on the timing sheets and he improved
steadily throughout the afternoon, helping the team gather
data in the process.
Franck Montagny - Chassis TF106B/09
Best Lap Time: 1m20.398s
Total laps: 96
Total distance: 425.1kms
"It was not a bad day. I was in this car last at Silverstone
in September so it has been a long time. This morning it was
wet and therefore a little bit difficult to run through our
programme but we did find some interesting things. We worked
on the set-up of the car and in the afternoon we were the
first ones to put on the dry, grooved tyres. It was quite
a good experience to test these new tyres and get a feeling
for them, even though on this circuit it was a little challenging
because of the track conditions this morning. We followed
our programme and we did a good job - the car was quite quick
today."
Kohei Hirate - Chassis TF106B/07
Best Lap Time: 1m21.424s
Total laps: 73
Total distance: 323.2kms
"It was very good day and it was a fantastic experience,
a lot of fun. The car is very fast and physically it is harder
to drive than the cars I am used to driving, it requires a
lot of effort. I am happy to get the chance to work with the
Formula 1 team and I think we did a good job. I didn't make
any mistakes during the test session. We tried different set-ups
and found a good set-up for the car. We have done a good job
and now I am looking forward to getting the chance to test
again."
Dieter Gass, Chief Engineer Race and Test
"Once the circuit had dried out, which actually took
quite a long time today, we were able to work on the 2007
tyres. We had quite a productive day with no major issues
on either car. The team got a lot of things done and we were
quite satisfied with the day's work. Kohei had a very good
first day I would say, he made no mistakes and he set quite
a good lap time which we are quite pleased with. Frank was
back in the car for the first time since September and as
expected he did a solid job and set a competitive lap time
in the afternoon.
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