Renault back on track

The Renault F1 Team is back on track this week for its final planned test session of the 2006 season. This three day session is of particular importance for the team and will be primarily focused on preparations for the Japanese Grand Prix. The programme for the week consists of tyre selection, car set up and Nelson Piquet Jr’s first runs with the Renault F1 Team.

Heikki started working on set up changes and as track conditions improved he then completed an important tyre programme with Michelin to select the tyres for Suzuka. By the end of the session, the Finn was P1 in 1’19.125 and had covered 91 laps.

Alongside the Finn, the Renault F1 Team chose to give Nelsinho his Renault debut this week on a circuit he is familiar with. He showed a good level of performance although this was not the major objective for the day. His primary target was to acclimatize himself to the car, to meet the team and understand the different procedures of the Renault F1 Team. The Brazilian finally set the fourth-fastest laptime in 1’19.723 and completed 71 laps for his first day of running.

The team enjoyed a productive first day of test and hope to continue for the next two days. Christian Silk, Chief Test Engineer, said: “ We started slowly this morning owing to the poor track conditions and then we worked on tyre testing for Suzuka as it is our priority for this session this week. Regarding Nelson, we wanted him to acclimatize to the team and our way of working and procedures. He did a nice first day of testing and acclimatized himself well.”