French GP: Robert Doornbos Friday notes

With two quick laps in both Free Practises ahead of the French Grand Prix this Sunday, Robert Doornbos left his teammates Tiago Monteiro and Narain Karthikeyan far behind today.

On the modern Circuit Nevers Magny-Cours, Jordan Grand Prix' test- and reservedriver clocked a fastest time of 1:17.574 under sunny circumstances (Air Temp 23ºC and Track Temp 28ºC), which handed him P18 at the end of the day. Doornbos was the only driver of the team who tested the new EJ15B chassis and was the third quickest on Bridgestone tyres.

Just like most other drivers, Doornbos mainly concentrated on getting familiar with the circuit in the first Free Practise session between 11:00 and 12:00 hours. By lapping the 4,411 kilometer long track 20 times, the 23-year old Dutchman drove the most laps of all F1 drivers behind testdrivers De la Rosa and Panis.

At the end of the session Doornbos set a fastest laptime of 1:19.001 (P19), which was more than 2.5 seconds faster than his teammates and racedrivers Narain Karthikeyan (1:20.067) and Tiago Monteiro (1:21.725)!

With a busy schedule ahead of him, Doornbos immediately left his pitbox at 14:00h to start the second session with two runs of eight laps each in order to supply Bridgestone with relevant information about the behaviour of the two compound of tyres. By setting a fastest time of 1:17.574 in the closing stages, the 2004 FIA International F3000 'Rookie of the year' again stayed well ahead of both Karthikeyan (1:17.790) and Monteiro (1:19.186).

Robert Doornbos:

"This week was very special for me. On invitation of Toyota I have trained with Jarno Trulli and two fitness trainers of Formula Medicine in the surroundings of St Moritz. We cycled, climbed and ran in the mountains. It was completely sweatted before I stepped back in the car today."

"The Friday practise sessions went very well. I felt very comfortable in the car straight away and I learned the cir cuit very quickly. Because the team only drove a small amount of laps at our Barcelona test last week, the accent of today's work had been moved to make maximum mileage."

"The atmosphere in the team is very good at the moment as we made a significant step forward by driving many kilometres with the new EJ15B chassis today. Over the lunch, we made some changes on the car as the track conditions were changing continuously. I am sure that, with the work done today, we will be well prepared for Sunday's Grand Prix. Big compliments to Bridgestone and the whole team!"

-www.robertdoornbos.com-