Another busy day for Alonso

The ING Renault F1 Team completed its Hockenheim test programme today, bringing to a close its preparations for next week’s German Grand Prix. Fernando Alonso remained in the R28 for his second day of work with the team this week and benefited from near perfect weather conditions with temperatures in the region of 30°C.

The team made the most of the warm and sunny weather to complete a total of 115 laps, equivalent to 523km.

Having completed a successful R&D programme yesterday, the team shifted its attention today to working on improving the set-up of the R28, tyre evaluation and general race preparation. The team was able to complete its programme as planned, improved the car and now looks forward to returning here next week for the German Grand Prix.

Fernando Alonso: “Another busy day, covering lots of laps and getting more data, which will be useful for the race next week. It was quite nice to drive with the warmer temperatures because I think it is more representative of what we will have over the race weekend. We were certainly more competitive today, so it is clear that we have improved the car and that we are going in the right direction, but we still have some further ideas to explore over the race weekend.”

Christian Silk, Chief Test Engineer: “We concentrated on race preparation work today, did some tyre evaluation, and completed the rest of our programme. The car was working reasonably well and so overall we are quite happy with the week’s work and looking forward to the race here. It was good to run in the warm temperatures today because they are more typical of what we can expect next week.”

Fernando Alonso, R28-04, 115 laps, 523 km, fastest lap 1:15.593