28/04/2005
NEWS STORY
Imola pole-man Kimi Raikkonen topped the timesheets on the first day of testing at Jerez.
The Finn was joined by Bahrain hero, Pedro de la Rosa, as the Woking outfit began a two-day test at the Spanish track.
The programme for both drivers today concentrated on Michelin tyre testing, engine durability, set-up development and developments on the aero package for the Spanish Grand Prix and forthcoming races.
Kimi's programme was delayed after an engine ancillary drive broke which resulted in an engine change. He then went back out and encountered a minor software problem which the test team fixed.
"Today my programme was interrupted by an engine ancillary problem," said the Finn, "however the test team worked quickly to rectify this, to make sure the disruption to the programme was minimal. I was however pleased to have set the overall fastest lap time of the day."
"Today I completed a significant number of km, approximately 615 in total and the car was working very well," added his Spanish teammate.
Toyota had Jarno Trulli and Olivier Panis on duty, the Italian finishing second quickest, albeit 0.5s off Raikkonen's pace.
The Japanese team, still recovering from the disappointment of Imola, endured further frustration when Trulli's test was brought to a premature end as a result of a fuel pressure problem. The Italian had been working on set-ups and tyre evaluations.
His French teammate spent the day focussing on damper and shock absorber settings, following the problems encountered over the San Marino weekend.
World Championship leaders Renault had Fernando Alonso and Franck Montagny on duty. Both drivers completed incident-free race weekend simulations using the B specification RS25 engine, which will be used by both race drivers in the forthcoming Grand Prix at Barcelona. The chassis programme concentrated primarily on tyre evaluations, for both the next race and beyond.
"We had initially planned to run at Silverstone this week," revealed Christian Silk, "but poor weather forecasts in England meant we changed plans in order to run in more stable conditions. That means we need to complete three days' work in two - which in turn led to an extremely busy day for the test team here in Jerez.
"However, both drivers succeeded in completing race weekend distances without any technical problems, and we collected some promising results from our tyre evaluation work."
Another team that had a miserable time at Imola was Red Bull, sadly however, the Austrian team suffered further problems today, with Tonio Liuzzi crashing heavily. The rear end of the Italian's car was badly damaged when he lost control between turns 5 and 6, spinning backwards into a wall.
Liuzzi, who made his race debut at Imola, later admitted that the accident was his fault. Teammate David Coulthard's day was little better, the Scot suffering a number of minor technical problems with restricted his track-time.