Encouraging day for Kovalainen and Renault
Renault was back on at the Barcelona track to kick off its winter testing programme. A busy session was on the cards mainly oriented towards electronics with the new 2008 common ECU. Heikki Kovalainen worked on setting up his R27 early on to feel at ease, and then quickly found his feet at the wheel of the car without traction control and other driver assistance aids. The young Finn reacted very well, and in the afternoon he switched to a programme aimed at testing the reliability of the new ECU.
Overall, the day has been a very encouraging one. Heikki covered 81 laps and was one of the drivers who spent the most time out on the track. He ended his first day’s testing having collected a lot of data that will now be analysed and completed tomorrow. At the end of the session he set the fourth-quickest time in 1’22.802.
