Renault's Heikki Kovalainen was the quickest of eight drivers on duty at Silverstone today.

The French squad started its final planned test session of the 2006 season with Kovalainen and giving Nelson Piquet Jr his debut drive with the team.

Heikki started his programme with set up changes to the car and as the track conditions improved he was able to work on tyre selection for the Japanese Grand Prix. On the other side of the garage, Piquet Jr joined the team for his first test as a Renault driver and focused on discovering the R26 and the team's working procedures. The Brazilian acclimatized himself well and showed a good level of performance on his first day with the team.

"We made good progress today regarding the tyre selection for Suzuka," said Kovalainen. "The track was changing a lot so we will need to analyse the data to evaluate the level performance of each type of tyre but it was a good day of testing."

"It was a good first day of testing," added Piquet. "There are some similarities with the GP2 car in terms of the clutch and electronics, but I still have a lot to learn, so the main thing for today was to do as much running as possible, and to take everything on-board. It's important I think to learn a lot straight away and to meet the people I am going to work with. It was a busy and interesting day, and I felt comfortable in the car straight away which is quite positive I think."

"We started slowly this morning owing to the poor track conditions," said Christian Silk, "and then we worked on tyre testing for Suzuka as it is our priority for this session this week. Regarding Nelson, we wanted him to acclimatize to the team and our way of working and procedures. He did a nice first day of testing and acclimatized himself well."

Second quickest was Toyota's Ricardo Zonta - who is heading to Renault next season - with the Japanese team's new boy, Franck Montagny, ending the day third on the timesheets. Although he has not signed a contract yet, the Frenchman was able to familiarise himself with the team.

Due to the fact that Ricardo was not feeling well and will head home earlier than planned, Franck will carry on testing tomorrow, while Ralf Schumacher will also be on hand to begin his final grand prix preparations.

"Both drivers worked hard today and concluded the session with competitive times," said test team manager, Gerd Pfeiffer. "Franck's programme focused mainly on tyre testing and helping us collect data in preparation for the last grand prix races. He was very helpful and showed he has a great deal of experience in Formula One. Unfortunately, Ricardo was not feeling too well in the morning.

"However, because he worked really hard in the afternoon despite his cold, we were able to finish up the tyre testing for the Chinese Grand Prix. Tomorrow we will continue preparations with Franck and Ralf at the wheel."

"I am quite happy to have driven today," said Montagny. "Overall, I had a really good feeling - about the car and its handling, the team and everyone who worked with me today. I felt that everyone was very professional and made me feel comfortable. Of course, I will need more time to get to know all the areas of such a large team. For my part, we focused on tyre testing and I am sure there is still a lot to do, but my overall feeling was quite positive. I was glad to be of help to the team and enjoyed driving the car."