Constructive day for Williams at Barcelona

With the obligatory end-of-season break now at an end, the team returned to the race track today for the opening session of what will undoubtedly becoming an intensive period of winter testing ahead of 2008.

In preparation for next year, the team will be running two cars at a three day test in Barcelona this week with Nico Rosberg and newly-appointed race driver, Kazuki Nakajima, in the cockpits of the interim FW29Bs.

Dickie Stanford, Test Team Manager, Williams F1: "The AT&T Williams team were back on the race track today for the start of winter testing. In preparation for his first full season in Formula One having been confirmed as a race driver for 2008, Kazuki Nakajima joined Nico Rosberg in the two car test. The pair, driving interim FW29Bs, opened the winter programme with a constructive first day concentrating on component development. Neither car suffered any major faults, and both drivers will return to the track tomorrow."

At the end of a busy day which saw a number of red flags due to the first outings of the new regulation ECUs, Kazuki set a fastest time of 1:23.187 on lap 40 out of 66 (8th) and Nico a 1:23.847 on lap 57 out of 58 (11th).