Alonso back in action at Jerez

The ING Renault F1 Team remained in Jerez today to continue with its final test of the 2008 season as Fernando Alonso returned to the cockpit of the R28 for the first time since the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix.

Despite a chilly start to the day, the team made the most of a warm and sunny afternoon to continue with its technical programme and add further miles to the car. Fernando also sampled slick tyres with a car set up to best simulate 2009 settings. Despite a brief interruption to the programme in the morning, the team completed its objectives for the day.

The team now looks forward to the final day of work tomorrow when Fernando will again be on driving duty.

Fernando Alonso: “It was a good day and I’m happy to be back in the car. Unfortunately I damaged the car a little bit in the morning and so we lost some running, but the team did a good job to repair the car quickly and I was able to run almost all of the afternoon without any problems. It was nice to run on the slick tyres as they are more grippy, but when you lose the downforce from the car they don’t feel massively different to grooved tyres.”

Christian Silk, Chief Test Engineer: “It’s good for Fernando to be back in the car and to get some experience on the 2009 tyres. Fernando learnt a lot about the tyres and the engineers learnt a lot from his feedback and setting the car up with him. On the technical side we continued with a similar programme to yesterday, putting mileage on the car and managed to achieve the main objectives for the day.”

Fernando Alonso, R28-05, 106 laps, 469 km, fastest lap 1:19.907