First taste of BGP 001 for Barrichello
The Brawn GP team completed a second successful day of testing at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona today as Rubens Barrichello joined the team to take over the testing responsibilities in the BGP 001 car from Jenson Button.
Stepping back into a Formula One car for the first time since the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix, Rubens began the day with an installation run to ensure he was comfortable with his position in the new chassis. Once achieved, the team's focus for the remainder of the day was to complete a series of long runs to enable Rubens to evaluate the balance of the car in race conditions.
Rubens completed 111 laps over the day as he posted the third fastest lap on the timesheets. Team-mate Jenson will continue the programme with the BGP 001 car tomorrow before Rubens brings the test to a conclusion on Thursday.
Rubens Barrichello: "First of all I would like to thank everyone at Brackley for what has been achieved. After such a long wait for news on the team and for me to have to sit out the past four months, I am so pleased that we have a reliable and fast car straight out of the box. Secondly I am pleased with my physical condition which has enabled me to complete so many laps - 111 in total - on my first day of running. As we are playing catch-up, obviously the more mileage I can do before the first race the better. I am happy that we have got off to a good start here at our first test and we just need to carry that through to the next test in Jerez and Melbourne."
Source: Brawn GP
