Productive day for di Grassi

The ING Renault F1 Team resumed its testing programme today, completing the first of three days at Paul Ricard. The team focussed on a busy programme of development work in preparation for the Monaco Grand Prix next week.

Lucas Di Grassi was in the cockpit as the team ran on a short configuration of the French circuit to try and simulate the conditions for Monaco next week. The Brazilian made the most of ideal weather conditions to complete 146 laps as he evaluated some development pieces that the team hopes to introduce in the coming races.

It was a productive day and the team was able to complete most of its goals. Nelson Piquet will be in action tomorrow, taking over from Lucas and will remain in the car for the rest of the week.

Lucas Di Grassi: “Today we were preparing the car for the race in Monaco next week and so we needed to test some new parts to make sure that everything was okay. The day was quite productive and we tested most of what we needed to, and I was happy to be back in the car and to complete so many laps. So a good day’s work.”

Christian Silk, Chief Test Engineer: “It was a reasonable first day of running, with good mileage and so we were able to complete quite a lot of our test objectives. We did so much running because the weather forecast for the rest of the week is a bit uncertain, and so if the weather does deteriorate we’ve got as much work done as possible. It was also important to give Lucas a good number of laps in the car, which is what he needs at the moment.”

Lucas Di Grassi R28-04, 146 laps, 511km, fastest lap 1:07.430