Day 4 sees Kimi at the wheel

Kimi Raikkonen was at the wheel of the Team McLaren Mercedes 2006 challenger, the MP4-21, for the first time today at the Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona. Kimi's debut with the car was the fourth day of running with the MP4-21, and the Finn added over 300km to the car as he completed 65 laps at the Spanish circuit. His quickest time of the day, a 1m17.739, put Kimi in twelfth place on the timesheets.

The cold and foggy weather conditions continued, with track temperatures not reaching above zero until after 09:00, and as a result following an installation lap shortly after 09:00 the Finn spent just under two hours in the garage before returning to the track at 10:52. Following another short run of 4 laps, Kimi began more longer stints. A minor oil leak in the gearbox was detected early afternoon, which was repaired by the test team and Kimi returned to the track to continue his programme.

Pedro de la Rosa returned to testing duties at the Circuit de Catalunya, following his shakedown with MP4-21 on Monday of this week. Pedro was driving the interim MP4-20, and his work continued to focus on Michelin tyre evaluation. He covered 47 laps and 220km during the day, setting a time of 1m18.256. During the course of the afternoon, the engine in Pedro's car was changed, as it had reached the end of its lifecycle.

Kimi Raikkonen "It is really good to be back testing and it is great to see what the team have done with the new car. Because it was my first day in the MP4-21, most of the time was spent with me getting used to it and then starting to look at different set-ups. My first impression of the car is positive, but I will need more track time to find out how great the potential really is. Also we could not run all morning because of the cold weather, but even so we put in a good number of laps and drove over 300km."

Kimi Raikkonen and Pedro de la Rosa will continue at the Circuit de Catalunya tomorrow, the final day of the test in Barcelona for the team.