26/04/2006
NEWS STORY
The Renault duo of Fernando Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella set a blistering pace at Silverstone today, the second day of testing at the Northamptonshire track.
Following yesterday's intermittent rain showers, today was altogether better, and though it remained cool, the sun shone for much of the day.
Thanks to the good conditions, Alonso and Fisichella, who began his test programme today, mainly focused on set up changes during the morning and tyre development in the afternoon.
Both drivers achieved high mileage with 94 laps for Fernando and 116 laps for Giancarlo. In spite of some small mechanical problems at the end of the afternoon, the team was pleased with its work and the performances of the its drivers.
"The weather conditions were much better today which allowed us to have a productive day," said Christian Silk. "We looked at set-up changes in the morning and then focused on tyre development to make up for running time we lost yesterday. We obtained good results and the drivers were very pleased with the car and its behaviour. We will continue our programme tomorrow for our last day at Silverstone."
Third quickest, was Jenson Button, who was joined by Honda teammate, Rubens Barrichello. After some early familiarisation runs, the Brazilian began a tyre evaluation, completing 60 laps during the morning session.
Button continued his running, working through a chassis set-up programme in the morning session, completing 63 laps.
Rubens completed his tyre evaluation from the morning during the early part of the afternoon. He then finished off the session with a short aero programme completing 49 laps, bringing his final lap tally for the day to 109 laps.
Jenson spent the afternoon running through a tyre evaluation looking at the options for the forthcoming races. He completed his full test programme, running for 72 laps in the afternoon session to bring his total for the day to 135 laps.
Anthony Davidson will take over from Button tomorrow.
Fourth and fifth quickest were McLaren drivers Juan Pablo Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen. Thanks to the improved weather conditions, the Woking outfit was able to focus on the Michelin tyre selection, with today's programme based on the British Grand Prix. This resulted in both Juan Pablo and Kimi completing short runs during the day as different compounds and set-ups were evaluated.
In his second day of running, Juan Pablo covered 72 laps equating to just over 370km as he put in the fourth quickest time of the day. Kimi ended the day fifth on the timesheets, as he completed 190km over the course of 37 laps. An hydraulic issue with his MP4-21 saw the Finn stop running shortly before the end of the day.
Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg were in action for WilliamsF1, the German out-pacing the Australian by over half-a-second.
"Mark and Nico tested alternative brake materials in the morning and then concentrated on tyre compound tests in the afternoon to give us a direction for the race here in June," revealed test team manager Mike Condliffe. "We continue testing here tomorrow with Mark and Alex and expect a dry weather forecast."
BMW had three drivers on duty during the course of the day, with Robert Kubica taking over from Nick Heidfeld in the afternoon when the German complained of "muscle twinges" in his back. Heidfeld's morning was spent on set-up work, while in the afternoon Robert focussed on tyre testing for Michelin.
As planned Jacques Villeneuve concentrated on aero work in the morning and dampers and a short tyre test in the afternoon.
For the final day of the test Robert will be the only driver. The team will prepare both cars for him so he can complete the tyre validation work, along with the aero and damper work as planned.
It was a difficult day for Red Bull, with David Coulthard suffering a number of technical issues and Tonio Liuzzi, on loan from Toro Rosso crashing heavily.
The Italian crashed at Becketts towards the end of the morning session, damaging the car so badly that the team was unable to repair the car in time for any further running.
The Italian was unhurt, though it is not known what caused the accident. "He didn't do any damage to himself, but the car had a reasonable amount of damage," team boss Christian Horner told reporters."
Tiago Monteiro finished fourteenth of the fifteen drivers on duty, out-pacing Heidfeld, who subsequently withdrew from the test.
"Tiago had a busy day in the car today, working on setup for the Grand Prix here in a few weeks' time," said chief race and test engineer, Dominic Harlow. "We tested tyres, and looked at some small improvements to the braking system."
"We had a productive session today," said Monteiro, "running through a complete programme. We went through an interesting tyre test in the morning with many different sets. In the afternoon, we did some setup work and tested some updates to the car.
"Overall, it was a positive day and we are working hard to find more speed."