Renault fastest as Barcelona test ends

Testing at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya came to a close on February 18th and Renault finished its week at the top of the times. Fernando Alonso set the best of the day, 1:13.967, and teammate Giancarlo Fisichella was second fastest, less than a tenth behind. Both competed a race distance as well as work on set up and tyres.

Giancarlo Fisichella and Fernando Alonso.

Photo by LAT Photographic.

"We have had a very positive test, and the elements are falling into place for Melbourne; we will sign off the final items during our running next week at Silverstone," said chief test engineer Christian Silk. Tester Franck Montagny will undertake most of the work next week, with Alonso and Fishichella dropping in for pit stop practice.

Ralf Schumacher was the sole Toyota at work and concluded the team's four day test with third on the timesheet. The TF105 was running with a revised aerodynamic package this week and Schumacher was pleased with the result, despite the track conditions not being ideal.

"The new aerodynamic package obviously improves the car massively," he commented. "We can't give an exact figure of how much it has improved because the conditions here have been difficult and people's lap times have been all over the place."

"It is also hard to compare lap times with the last time we were in Barcelona because the circuit was brand new. But it always helps to have more downforce and this is quite an improvement. We still have work to do but we are reasonably happy with the package so far."

Jordan had three cars on track, race drivers Narain Karthikeyan and Tiago Monteiro fourth and fifth quickest respectively, and Nicky Pastorelli rounded off the times in sixth. Dutchman Pastorelli, Euro 3000 champion in 2004, is one of the drivers Jordan is evaluating for a test role. Karthikeyan and Monteiro focused on race simulations on the team's last day.

"The whole week has been one of evolution," said Monteiro. "We have been through a lot, tried out a lot of things and learned a lot. I feel like I have integrated well with the people on the team and I'm really enjoying it. So far so good."