Klien makes Honda-debut

The testing action continued at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona today as the Honda Racing F1 Team’s new Test & Reserve Driver Christian Klien had his first run in the Honda Formula One car, the RA106.

Christian spent the day familiarising himself with the team and his early runs focused on acclimatising himself to the RA106 car and the new Bridgestone Potenza tyres, which he is also experiencing for the first time. Christian then worked through a tyre programme and chassis set-up work as the team continues its evaluation of the Bridgestone rubber. He completed 79 laps today and will continue his running in chassis RA106-06 tomorrow.

Christian described his first day of testing with the Honda Racing F1 Team as follows: “It’s been a great first day as a Honda driver. After some initial familiarisation with the car I basically got straight down to work helping the team to start developing our partnership with Bridgestone and looking at how we can get the best out of the new tyres. I did quite a lot of running for my first day – 79 laps – and I worked well immediately with the team and engineers. It’s a very positive atmosphere and I think I have made a good contribution. I’m very happy and looking forward to more of the same tomorrow.”

Rubens Barrichello was also on track for his second day in chassis RA106-02 – he continued his work from yesterday looking at the tyres and working on chassis set-up. Rubens completed 96 laps today and will complete his work tomorrow on the final day of this week’s test.