The Etihad Aldar Spyker Formula One Team has completed a trouble-free first day of its three-day test at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, home to the forthcoming Belgian Grand Prix. Following on from his runs in the car at the Silverstone test three weeks ago, Giedo van der Garde was on driving duty for the team, putting in more than 350km over the course of the day.

The young Dutchman completed a programme that included aero development and general set-up work and finished the day just over three seconds slower than Lewis Hamilton over the 6.976km lap.

Adrian Sutil will take over from Giedo for the second day of the test tomorrow.

Dominic Harlow, chief race and test engineer: 'We were pleasantly surprised by the weather in Spa today for our first visit in nearly two years, and have been able to complete a very satisfactory programme with Giedo van der Garde. The build of the car here includes many development components in all the major systems of the car that need mileage and data collection before they can race. In addition the team carried out some aerodynamic and brake system tests. The circuit must be congratulated on the new facilities that have been built over the winter which have improved working conditions for the teams by a good step.'

Giedo van der Garde: 'It was a good day today. We worked steadily through the programme and I was very pleased with the performance today. It's a long lap, nearly 7km, so it's good to be so close to the fastest cars. We worked on downforce levels and the set-up and while it was a shame that we couldn't try out the softer tyre option available as I think we could maybe have gone even quicker, I think we got a good baseline for the rest of the test.'