Good progress for Force India on first day at Jerez

Just five days after its presentation in Mumbai, India, the Force India Formula One Team's striking new livery of gold, white and tungsten made its track debut today in Jerez, Spain. Test and reserve driver Tonio Liuzzi completed driving duties on the opening day of the team's three day test in Jerez, completing a programme that took in work on new gearbox development items, the 2008 electronics package and brakes.

Tonio was able to complete more than 100 laps over the day and recorded a best of 1min 21.553, despite the high winds that swept the area in the afternoon and made track conditions challenging.

Adrian Sutil will take over tomorrow, with Giancarlo Fisichella completing the test on Thursday.

Dominic Harlow, chief race and test engineer "A day of very different conditions morning and afternoon here. The circuit was near perfect at the start of the morning session with the usual quick laptimes for some teams. We concentrated instead on race fuel levels and building gearbox development mileage. Tonio also completed a number of tests on the some new braking system components and revised electrical hardware."

Tonio Liuzzi "Today was a good day. We managed to do a lot of mileage, which was the target today following the shortened days we have had at the previous tests. We had a few items to test for the new car and managed to complete the programme with some promising progress. As I had a full day I was able to get more comfortable in the car and feel very positive about it. We now need to put all the information together, look through the data and keep everything going forward"

Testing data
Driver: Tonio Liuzzi
Track: Jerez de la Frontera, Spain
Best lap time: 1min 21.553
Laps completed: 103
Kilometres completed 447km