Sepang Test – Day 2
Wednesday 28 March 2007
Location: Sepang International Circuit, Malaysia
Driver: Ralf Schumacher
Track length: 5.543km
HALFWAY HOT HOUSE
Panasonic Toyota Racing resumed preparations for the Malaysian
Grand Prix with the second day of testing at the Sepang circuit,
near Kuala Lumpur. After putting the TF107 through its paces
on day one, Franck Montagny stepped aside for Ralf Schumacher
to take over driving duties today. Ralf battled the heat and
humidity on another day of bright sunshine as he took his
turn to try out different set-ups in the search for a perfect
answer to Sepang’s sweeping fast corners and tight hairpins.
Throughout the day the team repeated the impressive reliability
shown over the Australian Grand Prix weekend and Ralf, despite
a spin in the middle of the afternoon, enjoyed a largely trouble-free
day, completing his programme and more than a race distance.
Ralf will be back in action tomorrow for the final day of
testing before the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Ralf Schumacher - Chassis TF107/03
Best Lap Time: 1min 35.751s
Position: 4th
Total laps: 83
Total distance: 454.5km
“Today was reasonable, we didn’t have any problems
with the car which is positive. It gets very hot in the car
but I have done my training to be ready for this so I can
cope. For me it was a useful session and it should help us
for the Grand Prix here next weekend. We worked on different
set-ups, seeing how the car and tyres work in different conditions
and everything went well. We have a bit of work to do after
the first race of the season to get the performance we expect
but so far the team is making good progress and I hope that
is the case tomorrow as well.”
Gerd Pfeiffer, Test Team Manager
“We had a productive day today, trying out various set-ups
and making tyre comparisons for the race here at Sepang next
weekend. It was very positive that we completed the day without
any mechanical problems despite the heat. That bodes well
for the Malaysian Grand Prix. The only small delay came when
Ralf spun but there was no damage done so that did not cost
much time. After completing so many laps, we have a lot of
information about how the car handles on this track with each
different type of tyre. Now we expect to continue to make
positive progress tomorrow on the final test day.”
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