Trouble-free test day for Nelsinho

After a couple of weeks’ break since the Bahrain Grand Prix, the ING Renault F1 Team was back on track today on the Catalunya circuit near Barcelona for another 3-day test session, which is being held in the week preceding the Spanish Grand Prix and as such is particularly important.

Nelson Piquet Jr. was at the wheel of the R27-05 for the first day’s testing. The young Brazilian had a very busy time as he covered 125 laps, nearly 574 kms, and concentrated mainly on aerodynamic tests in the context of the team’s development programme. The aim was to validate previously recorded data, and to prepare for the next two days’ running as well as next week’s race. Nelson was able to complete his programme without problems.

Nelson Piquet Jr: “I think that we’ve recorded interesting data for the engineers who will now get down to analysing them. We did a lot of running today, from 09:00 to 18:00 non-stop. I covered a large number of laps and it’s almost 2 months since I last drove the car, so it wasn’t the most restful of days for me! But it’s good to be back behind the wheel again.”

Christian Silk, chief test engineer: “We’ve begun our week’s testing with a good day’s work. We were doing aero testing that’s part of our normal development programme, and took full advantage of today without running into the slightest reliability problem. It was good for Nelson to get back into the car and he did exactly what we expected of him. We’ll continue our programme tomorrow on the basis of today’s testing.”

Heikki Kovalainen will pursue Renault’s test programme tomorrow.

Nelson Piquet Jr., R27-05, 125 laps, 574 kilometres, fastest lap: 1’22.763