Renault Jerez test notes 2006-09-14

Day 2 for the test programme of the Renault F1 Team in Jerez.

A busy day for the French squad which remain focused on its test programme to prepare the last races of the season and especially the next Chinese Grand Prix in two weeks' time.

Giancarlo Fisichella joined the test team this morning to replace Fernando Alonso who was initially planned to test this week. The Italian worked on tyre testing with Michelin, making tyre selections for China, but his programme was delayed owing to mechanical problems. He collected interesting data which will need to be completed tomorrow for the last day of testing in Jerez. At the end of the session, Fisichella was second fastest in 1:17.701 and 70 laps covered.

With Heikki Kovalainen unwell, Jose Maria Lopez continued his programme and continued to focus on software development and set up changes. In spite of only covering a small number of laps, Lopez set the third-fastest laptime of the session in 1:18.071. Kovalainen is expected to fit enough to drive again tomorrow for the last day scheduled in Jerez.

Christian Silk, Chief Test Engineer:

"We must admit that this was a tough day for the team because of mechanical problems with the cars. But the data we did manage to collect is interesting and will need to be completed tomorrow. The team did today a great job to optimize the running time as much as possible and that is a positive point."

-credit: renault