Renault moving in the right direction

ING Renault F1 Team today completed its fourth and final day of testing in Sepang. The test focused primarily on preparing for the forthcoming Malaysian GP, which will be held to next weekend, as well as pursuing the team’s normal performance development.

Heikki Kovalainen continued at the wheel of chassis R27-04 today, continuing his work from Wednesday as he focused on set-up solutions. He completed a qualifying simulation at the end of the morning’s running, setting the fastest time of the day in 1:35.757.

The primary goal for the afternoon was to work on long runs. However, the programme was interrupted by a mechanical failure on chassis R27-04. The conclusions from the day’s running were positive nevertheless, and the team’s work this week will provide a solid baseline for the first day of practice in Malaysia, a week today.

Chief Test Engineer Christian Silk: “We completed our programme on an encouraging note after a good day’s work. We worked hard throughout the week, and we seem to be moving in the right direction. We made a number of changes overnight, and they seemed to work well out on track today. There is still a lot of progress to be made, but we are moving in the right direction, and I think we got the maximum from our week’s running in the circumstances. Heikki seems comfortable at this track, he learned it quickly and is in good shape going into next week’s Grand Prix. That was another important objective for this session, that we have achieved successfully.”

Heikki Kovalainen, R27-04, 55 laps, 301 km, best lap: 1:35.757