Virgin Racing Jerez test notes day four

Virgin Racing brought its debut test with the VR-01 to a successful conclusion in Jerez today. Lucas di Grassi completed 63 laps of the 4.5km circuit and posted the 9th fastest time of the 10 cars out on track today - a 1:22.912. Although this was the fourth and final day of running for the team, it was the first real opportunity to gauge the relative performance of the VR-01 having only achieved very limited wet running during the previous three days of the test.

Nick Wirth, Technical Director of Virgin Racing, commented: "It is very pleasing to end our first test on such a positive note, having finally achieved some solid running in dry conditions. We have remained focused on the job list in hand and given that we have been working with a representative fuel load to evaluate various set-ups, our lap time and rate of progress is encouraging at this very early stage."

Team Principal John Booth commented: "This is a great reward for the team. They have all worked so hard over the past few days to achieve such positive running on our final day here. Everyone is extremely buoyant and looking forward to being back here in Jerez next week."

Lucas di Grassi said: "After three days of very little running, in the space of one day we have completed lots of mileage in the dry and we were able to work through lots of important items on our programme. The car was behaving much better after the work we did since yesterday and I think what we have achieved today is a very good start for our team. I would like to thank the guys for working some unbelievable hours this week. The way they have come together is fantastic and generally I am very happy with where we are."

-source: virgin racing