23/02/2006
NEWS STORY
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In a last minute banzai effort, Honda's Jenson Button stole Renault's thunder, taking fastest time of the day, indeed the year, at Barcelona.
Weather conditions were cold and sunny today for the third day of testing at the Spanish track
Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello were on duty for Honda, the Englishman ran through a tyre programme alongside an aero evaluation in the morning, while the Brazilian continued to work on chassis set-up, followed by an aero programme.
Button spent the afternoon completing a tyre evaluation, alongside a brake evaluation, while Barrichello also ran through a tyre evaluation programme.
With minutes of the session remaining, it looked as though the Renaults would take the honours, however a final burst saw Button post an amazing 1:13.935.
Anthony Davidson will take over from Button tomorrow with Rubens continuing in the other car.
Alonso and Fisichella completed their tests without any major problems and were highly competitive all day long.
The Spaniard covered a race distance in the morning and showed very good levels of performance and consistency during his runs. Then he continued his programme, focusing on set up changes, especially regarding aerodynamics.
The Italian completed a major set up programme today. He performed very well and ultimately took the second fastest lap time of the day: 1:13.971.
"We made some good improvements for the first races," said Alonso. "The car is good, well balanced and I think we identified some interesting directions with Michelin for the beginning of the season. I am confident and I am now impatient to compare our performances with the other teams in race conditions".
"I think I completed today an important part of my testing program and I am really happy with our results," added Fisichella. "My performances were good and the directions we are taking regarding the car development especially seem to be very satisfying. It was a very good day of testing".
"We had a very satisfying day today," said Christian Silk, "as we completed our programme on both cars without any major problem. We especially worked on the preparation of the first races because the start of the season is now very close. The lap times and the results of the tests we did today are good and the drivers were both very happy with the balance of the car. We are very pleased, and our results give the team even more motivation to continue pushing hard."
McLaren's Barcelona test ended today with Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya completing just under 1000km.
Both drivers were continuing the programme for the week, which had seen the team focus on set-up work alongside putting significant mileage onto the two MP4-21s that were in Spain.
Juan Pablo set a fastest time of 1m14.588 over the course of 131 laps, which was the largest total for the day of all 14 drivers on track. Kimi put in a 1m15.475, though he looked certain to beat this until a red flag - following Ralf Schumacher's engine failure - caused him to abort his final run.
Nico Rosberg was the quicker of the two WilliamsF1 drivers on duty, and indeed, the quickest of the Bridgestone runners. The German was joined by Mark Webber.
"Both drivers concentrated on long runs," said Sam Michael, "working on set-up, brake and tyre development. Nico will be joined by Alex for tomorrow's final day of the four day test."
After starting an hour later than other teams to ensure proper track temperature, Toyota resumed its testing programme with Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli. Today the focus continued to be on tyre testing with the team trying to find the conclusive tyre choice for the season start in Bahrain.
With both drivers reaching the 100 lap mark, there is quite a lot of data that can be used for further analysis.
"We had a good day of running here, and I was able to put in 100 laps of the track," said the German. "I spent the day working on tyre set-ups to prepare for the upcoming first race. Although I had a small spin this morning, this test is giving me the chance to come to grips with the new car, to understand it better and to adapt my driving style. So far I am pleased with the new aerodynamics on the car and eager to see how things develop before the first race."
"Today we are happy with the testing and results," added his Italian teammate. "We were pushing hard today and evaluating the tyre choice for Bahrain. We will soon be heading to the first race and I am feeling rather confident. Of course we have a few things to work on, but the car is showing that it is reliable. It would be wonderful to start the season again with good results, so that is why we are pushing hard in preparation for the season."
After a couple of "difficult" days, Red Bull drivers David Coulthard and Christian Klien were able to get some further work done.
"Christian managed to complete some longer runs, which is what we wanted, as he was using the race spec engine - gearbox package," said Chief Test Engineer Ian Morgan. "Despite a few minor problems, he got through most of his programme, as did David. Tomorrow is our final day here and the plan with both drivers is to simulate a race weekend, with qualifying laps and race length runs."
Christijan Albers was Midland's sole representative as the team focussed on tyre testing and a race simulation. Unfortunately, this was cut short due to a minor equipment malfunction in the garage.
MF1 Racing's winter testing schedule concludes on 28 February at Silverstone with a shakedown of the second M16 chassis and fine tuning the race setup for Bahrain.
"The weather was better than expected," said the Dutch driver, "so at least we could start early in the morning with some meaningful runs, instead of waiting for it to warm up.
"Unfortunately, we encountered some problems with the fuel rig, which cost us some track time. We had originally planned to cover a race distance in the afternoon but by the time we solved the problem, there just wasn't enough time left. So we finished up the day with a medium-length stint, which went well.
"I'm very pleased with the work we were able to do with Bridgestone," he added. "The tyres are improving, the car is getting better and the team is motivated. All in all, we had a useful week here in Barcelona and I'm feeling positive heading into next week's test at Silverstone."
Takuma Sato completed 58 laps in the Super Aguri SA05, the team clearly sdatisfied with its first test.
"The team has delivered more than anyone imagined possible before we came to Barcelona," said Mark Preston, "and this makes us confident that our performance in Bahrain will be acceptable. Yuji performed well during his first F1 test and Taku has been pushing hard to increase the performance of the car.
"These three days have helped to gel the team together, and that includes both the Super Aguri and Honda personnel, who have been central in our getting to this test. The engine performed faultlessly, which is a good indicator of our reliability for the first race. The test fulfilled our requirements and we were able to solve a number of systems-related issues. By the third day the car ran reliably all morning, allowing us to begin a programme of performance evaluations. Part of these evaluations allowed us to run our Bridgestone tyres for Bahrain and we are happy with the choice that we have made.
"Overall the team is tired following a week of very hard work, but amazingly we have achieved all of our goals and we are now looking forward to 'ticking the next box' on the list – our test at Silverstone next week."
Weather
Air temperature: 5-13 C
Track temperature: 7-18 C
Cold with cloud cover in the morning, clearing during the afternoon
To check out our Barcelona test gallery of over 220 pictures, click here