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Renault leads the way as Barcelona test concludes

NEWS STORY
14/04/2006

Heikki Kovalainen and Giancarlo Fisichella topped the timesheets on the final day of testing at Barcelona. The Finn posted the fastest time of the year at the Spanish track, outpacing his Italian teammate by 0.376s.

For his second day in chassis, Fisichella remained focused on set up changes and tyre development. Meanwhile, Kovalainen completed a substantial tyre programme including numerous long runs in the afternoon to analyse the new Michelin products in these conditions.

"It was a successful conclusion to our test," said Christian Silk. "We worked well with good progress on the tyres in particular. The team did a great job throughout this session and worked all the hours needed to get the job done. We will continue developing the chassis and the aerodynamics of the car for the next races and we will be on track at Silverstone in two weeks to continue our development programme. We all know that these test sessions are a vital part of winning races afterwards!"

Although 0.760s off the pace, Jarno Trulli demonstrated that Thursday's pace was no flash-in-the-pan by posting the third fastest time. The Italian, along with teammate Ralf Schumacher, concentrated on long runs, collecting data on set-ups, aerodynamics and tyres.

"We continued testing the tyres today, doing a lot of long runs," said the Italian. "With each test the tyres are improving and today we confirmed what I said yesterday, we have made a huge improvement in the handling of the car. We are consistently making progress and getting quicker in comparison to the first races. In general, I feel more comfortable about the car fitting my driving style, especially now when we are heading into the next race. Imola was never really kind to the team, but nevertheless, our times show that we can get more out of the car and we are ready to show our potential."

"We worked on a typical tyre-testing programme as well as some set-ups today," added Schumacher. "We were trying to get through some long runs concentrating mainly on the construction for the coming races. Unfortunately I spun out late in the day, but we still were able to get a lot done. The car is showing progress and we are determined to maintain the upward momentum that we currently have. Next week in Imola, we will see where we stand and we are aiming to improve on our results we have had so far."

"This week's testing went very well," said test team manager, Gerd Pfeiffer. "The warm weather was advantageous in allowing us to get a lot of testing done. We finished most of test programme on aerodynamics, tyres, and set-ups, that we had schedule for the week. Even though we had some minor issues with the cars and had some delays due to plenty of red flags, we were quite productive and can be pleased with the results we have found. Now the team will head to Imola, where we will work hard to score some points."

Jenson Button began the day looking at general car set-up work, before completing a tyre evaluation over longer runs to end the morning session. He spent the afternoon working through a short aero evaluation followed by further set-up work.

Rubens Barrichello concentrated on chassis set-up work covering 54 laps over the morning. However, due to a trapped nerve in his shoulder, he sat out the afternoon session with Anthony Davidson taking over. The Englishman successfully ran through the planned tyre evaluation, completing 69 laps.

"A fairly straightforward test this week with a lot of test items to get through before we go into the European season," said Button. "We focused mainly on aero developments and tyre testing for the next few races and I feel that we've made a positive step forward with our aero package and also on the tyre warming work."

"I really enjoyed my time in the car this week and we have made some good progress," added Barrichello, "I feel more comfortable and am getting more used to the car. We also made a step forward with the traction control, although there is still work to be done in this area. The only misfortune is that I have pulled a slight nerve in my shoulder so I stopped running at lunchtime today to get it checked out. Overall it's been another positive week and we're looking forward to getting to Imola next weekend."

Fifth quickest was Michael Schumacher, who was partnered by Felipe Massa, both drivers focussed on tyre testing.

Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya took the total kilometres covered at this week's test to just under 2,000, as they continued the programme of Michelin tyre selection for the Spanish Grand Prix and set-up work in two MP4-21s.

Kimi covered over 463km as he put in 100 laps of the Circuit de Catalunya. His fastest time of 1m14.752 put the Finn in sixth position on the timesheets. Juan Pablo completed 32 laps and set the seventh quickest time of the day, with a 1m14.878. The close nature of the times was demonstrated again today, with under eight tenths covering the top seven drivers.

The running today was interrupted for both drivers with mechanical failures on the MP4-21s, which with Juan Pablo led to his car going off track into a gravel trap. There was no damage to his MP4-21 and the test team were able to resolve the issues quickly and get both cars back out on track to continue running. Towards the end of the session, Juan Pablo also suffered an engine problem, however with under an hour left of the day, the team took the decision to end his test for the week.

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