JP takes over the wheel of the MP4-21
Juan Pablo Montoya had his first run in the Team McLaren Mercedes MP4-21 at today's test in Barcelona, following its shakedown at the Circuit de Catalunya yesterday. Juan Pablo covered approximately 410km over 87 laps in the MP4-21.
The Colombian took to the track for the first time at 09:00 for an installation lap and began his longer runs shortly after 10am, having allowed the track to warm up slightly. The cold weather of yesterday had continued, with the track only reaching 5 degrees Celsius by 12noon local time.
Juan Pablo's quickest time of the day was a 1m17.636, which was the third fastest time of the day. He put in a number of long runs, including a 21 lap stint shortly before lunchtime, followed by 16 and 19 lap runs in the afternoon.
Team McLaren Mercedes test driver Gary Paffett continued his programme of Michelin tyre work in the interim MP4-20. Gary completed 50 laps of the Spanish track, covering over 230km prior to an accident shortly before 14:00, which was as a result of the cold, low grip track. Gary was uninjured, however his MP4-20 was badly damaged and the test team pushed hard during the afternoon to get him back out on track for the final 15 minutes of the session. This time allowed Gary to take his total kilometres for the day to 265. The Englishman's fastest time of 1m17.797 put him in fourth position on the timesheets.
Juan Pablo Montoya "It was great to get my hands on the MP4-21 today in Barcelona. Actually I was at the shakedown yesterday for a few hours. Having spent some time at the McLaren Technology Centre recently I have seen the MP4-21 being built and I couldn't wait until today to see the car on track! We have had an encouraging day, it feels very similar to last year's car but a little bit better, but it is very early stages. Our focus today was similar to yesterday with Pedro, just continuing to work through all the systems checks. We were able to cover over 400 kilometres, and continue getting valuable data for the team to work on."
