Electrical problem for Spyker on final day at Silverstone
The Etihad Aldar Spyker Formula One Team concluded its three day test at Silverstone today. In a rain interspersed session, Christijan Albers completed the lion's share of the driving as work continued on brake system development, set-up for the British Grand Prix and tyre evaluation.
An electrical problem towards the end of the morning halted Christijan's running until the early afternoon, but he nevertheless completed 35 laps with a best time of 1min 23.374. Giedo van der Garde took over the car in the afternoon, however on his first run, spun into the gravel trap and damaged the front suspension. Technicians repaired the car to get Christijan out again towards the end of the afternoon, but light rain stopped any improvement in time.
The team will now go back to its base just across from Silverstone Circuit to finalise preparations for next week's French Grand Prix.
Dominic Harlow, chief race and test engineer "We had a few interruptions to the final day of the test today. A few red flags, then the rain arrived at lunch as we knew it would making the track briefly damp, and we had a technical issue with the car that lost us some time whilst it was traced. Christijan continued to improve his set-up for the race here in a couple of weeks, and unfortunately Giedo had a spin during his short programme. Overall there are a lot of positives from the three days to take into the French Grand Prix next weekend and when we come to Silverstone for the race just one week later."
Christijan Albers "We started quite well this morning as we had a good set-up. I was very happy with the progress, but the afternoon was disappointing as we lost time some time with the electrical problem where couldn't go full throttle and that compromised the lap time slightly today. Then Giedo went off, which was a shame as I couldn't do some runs with new tyres to try and attack this time. I think there would easily be a quicker time in the car."
Giedo van der Garde "The plan for today was to do some runs in the afternoon after the shortened time on Tuesday. Of course I was very pleased to get the chance again. On the second lap it was already faster than Tuesday's lap time, but then in the fast third corner on the third lap the car snapped at the rear and it just got away. You're going pretty quick in that corner, but I just bounced across the gravel trap and then touched the wall and damaged the front wing. It took some time to repair and then I handed it back to Christijan so he could complete the programme."
Testing data
Driver: Christijan Albers / Giedo van der Garde
Track: Silverstone Circuit
Best lap time: 1min 23.374 (Christijan) / 1min 25.865 (Giedo)
Laps completed: 40 (Christijan 35 / Giedo 5)
Kilometres completed: 206km
Air temperature: High of 20ºC
Track temperature: High of 30ºC
Weather: Dry and cloudy start, light rain throughout the day
