18/02/2005
NEWS STORY
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Renault drivers Fernando Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella set the pace on the fourth, and final, day of testing at Barcelona.
The Spanish driver was only 0.174s off the unofficial lap record, posted by Takuma Sato in February 2004.
The team's programme included race distance runs for both drivers, tyre selection for the opening races and set-up development. Most encouragingly, the team completed the highest mileage of the winter so far with the R25, and continued to set encouraging times on both long and short runs.
"Today was the best day's running of our winter test programme," said Christian Silk. "Both drivers completed race distances with the car, and performance on the long stints continued to be extremely encouraging; indeed, the lap-times were backed up with excellent feedback from both Fernando and Giancarlo.
"The mechanics also deserve recognition for their work this week," he added. "We extended our running by a day at short notice, and not only did they adapt fantastically well to ready the cars, but they continued working flat out until our final runs of the day. They have done an excellent job this week and throughout the winter. We have had a very positive test, and the elements are falling into place for Melbourne; we will sign off the final items during our running next week at Silverstone."
The team will test for three days at Silverstone next week, with Franck Montagny taking his first run in the R25 on all three days, while Fernando Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella will be present on Tuesday for pit-stop practice with the race team.
Ralf Schumacher Toyota's sole runner, lost precious track-time as a result of a number of different technical problems. However, he remains confident.
"The new aerodynamic package obviously improves the car massively," he said. "We can't give an exact figure of how much it has improved because the conditions here have been difficult and people's lap times have been all over the place. It is also hard to compare lap times with the last time we were in Barcelona because the circuit was brand new.
"But it always helps to have more downforce and this is quite an improvement. We still have work to do but we are reasonably happy with the package so far. Late on Friday I spun due to an electrical problem and we decided to stop the test because there was not enough time to fix it and to do any more meaningful work.
"We'll be going to Melbourne doing our very best to start the season with a solid points finish," he added."
Jordan had three drivers on duty, with Narain Karthikeyan and Tiago Monteiro joined by Dutch youngster Nicky Pastorelli.
The youngster was not scheduled to drive the car today, indeed he had to borrow Karthikeyan's helmet. The surprise decision to run him has led to speculation that he could be drafted in a test and reserve driver, though the team has already said that Russian youngster Roman Rusinov will act as test driver later this year.