Good day for Force India

Giancarlo Fisichella brought the Force India Formula One Team's preparations for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza to a successful conclusion today, with 114 laps and the third fastest time of the day just behind Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen.

Giancarlo continued the important evaluation of set-ups and wing levels specifically for this race, his home Grand Prix, together with work to optimise balance and braking over the kerbs. Again the VJM01 ran faultlessly, allowing Giancarlo to complete more than 600km and bring the total test mileage to over 1,700km.

The team will now return to Silverstone to integrate the test's findings into its race preparations for the Italian Grand Prix and the next event on the calendar, the Belgian Grand Prix, in just over a week's time.

Dominic Harlow, chief race and test engineer: "A very positive end to the test, with again good reliability. We've had a very productive week here, completing all our programme and accumulating some useful information to prepare for the Italian Grand Prix. It's always a pleasure to test in Monza and thanks to the drivers, test team and particularly Ferrari, Bridgestone and our other partners for all their efforts. We've had a very useful test that has helped to build on the step in performance that we saw in Valencia."

Giancarlo Fisichella: "Today we made some positive steps forward for the Italian Grand Prix, particularly with the balance and set-up. I could push, particularly in the afternoon and the pace over the longer runs was also good. You never know what the other teams are doing with their own programmes, but I think the race will be very close between us and Honda. I think we've made good progress here."