Small reliability issues for Renault

Warm and sunny conditions greeted the Renault F1 Team this morning as Nelson Piquet remained in the cockpit of the R29. Again the young Brazilian was concentrating on reliability work as the team examined new development items and continued with the on-track development of KERS technology. Despite losing some track time in the middle of the day, Nelson completed a total of 49 laps.

Fernando Alonso will be back in action tomorrow as he takes over the R29 from Nelson for the reminder of the week.

Nelson Piquet: “The track conditions were better today and we continued with the work we did yesterday, learning about the car and beginning some basic set-up work. Again we didn’t do as many laps as we would have liked as we lost some time after lunch, but we still learnt some interesting things. The weather looks good for the rest of the week so the team should be able to get some more important data tomorrow and Friday.”

Christian Silk, Chief Test Engineer: “The circuit was in much better condition today and we made some good progress with the car. We made some set-up changes with the car and found some good avenues to explore later in the week. There were some small reliability issues during the day, but we managed to do a long run in the afternoon which was encouraging.”

Nelson Piquet, R29-01, 49 laps, 217 km, fastest lap 1:21.908