Renault concludes first week of winter testing

The World Champions this evening concluded their first test session of the 06/07 winter at the Catalan home of the Spanish Grand Prix. The week saw the team make its track debut on Bridgestone tyres, which will be used by all teams for the 2007 season.

The final day’s running proved extremely positive for the two Renault drivers, who completed a total of 212 laps – nearly 2500 km. Heikki Kovalainen ran for the first time with the new 2007 gearbox, while Nelsinho Piquet worked on tyre evaluation and data acquisition with the Japanese manufacturer.

By the end of the day, Heikki had set second-fastest time of the day in 1:16.609, while Nelsinho was 8th with a time of 1:17.428.

Christian Silk shared his thoughts on the first week back on track for Renault: “This was a good last day of testing. When we arrived in Barcelona, our main aim was to understand how to run the car, in collaboration with our new partner Bridgestone. We achieved that, which is very positive. The whole team put in a lot of effort this week, working late into the night to prepare the cars and analyse the data. And I think the progress we have made over the three days shows the effort was worth it. We will now continue in the same direction, and we hope to have made solid progress by the team we conclude testing before Christmas.”

The Renault F1 Team will be in action once again next week at Jerez, with Giancarlo Fisichella and Heikki Kovalainen driving the R26.