31/07/2009
NEWS STORY
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In preparation for his return to racing at Valencia next month, Michael Schumacher has been testing at Mugello.
The 7-time World Champion, who retired at the end of the 2006 season, completed 67 of laps of the Mugello track in a 2007 car essentially to reacclimatise himself.
With in-season testing banned, the German is severely restricted in the amount of running he can do, therefore other than these laps at Mugello the 40-year-old will have to rely on simulator runs at the team's Maranello HQ, indeed, he took part in such a test on Thursday afternoon. The pre Valencia programme will be defined in the coming days
"It's a great thing getting back on the track with an F1 even if this was a car from 2007 from the F1 Clienti department with slicks usually used in GP2 and obviously there is no real point of reference," said Schumacher at the end of the Mugello session. "After a couple of laps I was able to drive constant lap times and I'm happy with the performance. Now we've got to see how my body and the muscles respond in the next days."
Schumacher's best time at the test, which was managed by the Formula 1 Clienti department, was a 1:23.736.
Meanwhile the Italian outfit asked the other teams for their agreement in allowing Schumacher to test the F60 before the race at Valencia. It is currently waiting for a reply.