Fisico and Klien on testing duties for Force India
Christian Klien joined Giancarlo Fisichella for the second day of the Force India Formula One Team's test at Jerez de la Frontera in Spain. In a highly productive day of testing, the team was able to complete its programme, with Christian setting the 7th fastest time of the 20 drivers on track and Giancarlo the 9th quickest.
Both Giancarlo and Christian completed 188 laps in total as they worked on general set-up, chassis development and evaluation of the slick Bridgestone Potenza tyres. As per yesterday's test, both drivers performed solidly over the day and were very evenly matched as they pushed on with their programmes. Klien was the quicker on slick tyres, while Giancarlo was marginally faster on grooved.
Ralf Schumacher and Vitantonio Liuzzi will take over testing duties for the team tomorrow, while Roldan Rodriguez and Giedo van der Garde will finish the test for the team on Friday.
Mike Gascoyne, chief technical officer "A very productive second day of testing. We had no real mechanical issues on the car and ran reliably all day, so despite several red flags, we were able to complete our planned programme. Giancarlo looked at general set-up work in the morning, followed by some chassis and 2009 tyre evaluation work in the afternoon. Christian joined us and similarly conducted general set-up work in the morning and looked at some damper set-ups and, again, the 2009 tyres. Once again we got excellent feedback from both drivers and it was a very useful and enjoyable day."
Giancarlo Fisichella "It was a better day. We made some good progress and went through the programme and had a step forward on the balance of the car. I felt more comfortable today and was quite happy with the grooved tyres, but when I went to the slicks there was a lot of understeer. Unfortunately on my best lap there was traffic, but overall a good day."
Christian Klien "It was a bit more difficult than in Barcelona as it was harder to set up the car. We made some big set up changes that took a bit of time, but I still managed to do 86 laps and had some good experience on the slick tyres. We did a couple of laps on those, which went quite well, and overall I think the whole day was quite productive. We did quite a few changes and I just got more used to it and to the team and, all in all, I am very happy and think it was a positive test."