Alonso joins the test action at Hockenheim

The ING Renault F1 Team remained in Hockenheim today to continue with its testing programme ahead of next week’s German Grand Prix. Weather conditions were much more settled than yesterday with an overcast morning developing into a warm and pleasant afternoon. That allowed the team to make good progress with its workload as the team completed a busy programme with Fernando Alonso taking over driving responsibilities from Nelson Piquet.

The Spaniard covered a total of 106 laps, equivalent to 485 km, as he concentrated on preparation for next week’s race. That centred around improving the car’s set-up, aero work, and some brake testing to find the optimum solution for a circuit that is particularly demanding on the brakes.

Fernando remains in the R28 tomorrow when the team will complete a final day of work before returning here next week.

Fernando Alonso: “It’s been a good day and we completed a lot of laps which has given us some useful information for the race next week. The track conditions were good, it remained dry and because it was cloudy, we had a constant track temperature, which is always useful for testing. So we have made some progress with the car, but there is still more work to do tomorrow.”

Christian Silk, Chief Test Engineer: “It’s been a productive day and we managed to complete most of our programme. Fernando was pretty happy with the car straight way, and the car seems quite nicely balanced around this circuit. We did some brake testing this morning and then focussed on chassis work, suspension set-up work, and a little bit of aero testing, which has given us some interesting results.”

Fernando Alonso, R28-04, 106 laps, 485 km, fastest lap 1:16.141