McLaren Barcelona test notes 2006-04-12

The Team McLaren Mercedes testing programme has relocated to Barcelona this week for a three day session with two MP4-21 race cars. The test is the first major multi-team outing since the start of the season, with 18 cars on track today.

Pedro de la Rosa, who was continuing his programme from last week at Paul Ricard, was joined at the Circuit de Catalunya by Kimi Raikkonen. The test team's work today focused on set-up work.

Lap times at the circuit today were very close with the top 13 drivers all setting times within one second of the fastest time. With so many teams on track there was the usual disruption of red flags with the total number today reaching nine stoppages.

Kimi covered 24 laps of the Spanish track, which equates to 111km, as he set the 12th fastest time of the day with a 1m15.957. The Finn's running began shortly before 14:00, as a result of his MP4-21 arriving in Barcelona from the McLaren Technology Centre early this morning. Kimi's car had returned from the Australian Grand Prix, following spare car duties at the opening three races, and was rebuilt in Woking prior to travelling to the test.

Team-mate Pedro completed 342km and 75 laps of his home track. The Spaniard put in a time of 1m15.779, which saw him take 10th position on the timesheets. Pedro's day ended about two hours before the end of session with an engine failure. As there was only a short period of time until the end of running, the test team will be replacing his V8 prior to the start of tomorrow's session.

The Team McLaren Mercedes test team will continue running at the Circuit de Catalunya tomorrow with Juan Pablo Montoya joining Kimi on track.

-mclaren-