Solid start for Doornbos in Melbourne

During the two one-hour lasting Free Practise Sessions at the 2005 Formula One season opener in Melbourne, Australia, Robert Doornbos started off his season in style. By lapping the 5,303 kilometer long circuit in central Melbourne 53 times in total, the 23-year old third and reserve testdriver of Jordan Grand Prix covered the most mileage of all drivers today.

In both the entire first sessions as well as the first 55 minutes of Free Practise 2, Doornbos stayed well ahead of his teammates Narain Karthikeyan and Tiago Monteiro.

After Doornbos initially acquired himself with the Toyota powered (fully revised) EJ15 and the semi-street circuit in Free Practise 1, the Dutchman improved his laptimes lap-by-lap. His fastest time of 1:29.370 eventually brought him a deserving 15th position this morning.

In the afternoon, Doornbos started Free Practise 2 with a long stint in order to complete his Bridgestone tyre evaluation programme. Only in the closing stage of today's final session, Robert's personal best laptime of 1:28.620 was improved by his Indian teammate Narain Karthikeyan, handing the Dutchman finally the twentieth position.

Robert Doornbos:

"It is great to be back in a Formula One car after three months. This morning, everything went very well. I felt very comfortable in the car straight away and I learnt the circuit very quickly. This afternoon, we have made some changes on the car as the circuit conditions were changing continuously. Beside this, we really made a step forward together with Bridgestone. I am sure that, with the work done today, we will be well prepared for Sunday's Grand Prix."

-www.robertdoornbos.com-