Kovalainen back on track after big crash yesterday
The ING Renault F1 Team today continued its test programme at Bahrain’s Sakhir circuit, on the penultimate day of the team’s pre-season test programme. After a disrupted first day of testing following Heikki Kovalainen’s accident during yesterday’s running, the team’s efforts today were split between repairing the damaged chassis and pursuing its development programme. By the end of the day, both goals had been reached, with a total of 136 laps completed – equating to over two full race distances.
Giancarlo Fisichella’s second day of testing this week aimed to build upon the programme he began yesterday. His work focused on handling work, with several relatively long runs during the later part of the morning session, before conducting set-up and tyre testing in the second part of the day. The Italian once again made encouraging progress, and finished the day fourth-fastest with a lap of 1:31.967 and 107 laps completed.
Heikki Kovalainen did not begin running until after lunch, as repairs to chassis R27-03 were completed. The technical team performed with its usual professionalism to completely rebuild the car overnight, and the Finn commenced his programme at 13:30 local time. Following an installation lap and systems checks, Heikki was able to work on set-up solutions for the R27. In spite of his limited mileage, he finished the day 6th fastest with a best lap of 1:32.068. He completed 29 laps in total.
Giancarlo Fisichella: “I did lots of laps today, and that meant we made some good progress with the programme. I think we got some good results on the long runs as well as our performance work, so I am quite pleased. We will try and build on this work tomorrow during the final day of pre-season testing. It will be an important day.”
Heikki Kovalainen: “I was pleased to be able to get back out on track this afternoon. The mechanics have done a fantastic job to repair the car so quickly, and a big thank you to the team for their efforts. It was important to run again today, and I was focused on getting the jobs done we needed to, to minimise the amount of lost time. We got some interesting results this afternoon, and now we need to make the most of our final day in order to wrap things up before Melbourne.”
Christian Silk concluded: “We made some good progress with our programme today, which was primarily focused on set-up testing. Giancarlo found some very encouraging solutions, and it looks quite encouraging. They confirm the choices we have made in recent weeks, and confirm that we have made some good progress in our understanding of the tyres and the car’s handling. Heikki was able to get back out on track once the car had been repaired, which was positive. The team did a sterling job to get the car ready, Heikki was comfortable straight away, and pleased with the progress he made. All in all, it was a very positive day.”
Giancarlo Fisichella, R27-01, 107 laps, 573 km, best lap: 1’31.967
Heikki Kovalainen, R27-03, 29 laps, 155 km, best lap: 1’32.068
