18/05/2007
NEWS STORY
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Kimi Raikkonen gave his Monaco (and Canada) hopes a boost when he topped the timesheets at Paul Ricard, for the second consecutive day.
The Finn took a further 0.2s out of the best time he posted yesterday, as testing continued on the French circuit's 1E V2 SC (Short) configuration, which best replicates the Montreal track.
On the final day of a mammoth four-day test, which has seen the teams complete 11,927 miles (19,194 km) Raikkonen once again concentrated on set-ups and tyre evaluations. He also worked on the development of various mechanical and aerodynamic components. The Finn completed 100 laps on his way to posting a best time of 1:28.624.
Second quickest, and giving his team a timely confidence boost, was Giancarlo Fisichella in the Renault. The Italian, who concentrated on set-up work followed by aerodynamic testing, completed the team's technical programme without enduring any technical problems.
"We had a good day," said Fisichella "In terms of performance, the times are very close and I am pleased with what we achieved, as well as the handling of the car. We completed a big programme in preparation for Canada, and I think we are going in the right direction.
"I am pleased to be here working with the team today," he added, "because I know how important it is for us all to work hard at the moment."
"We concluded our programme with a good day's work," added Christian Silk. "The car was handling well, and we made good progress in preparation for the next races. It was a long, busy test this week but everybody gave maximum effort - and I think the good results we achieved this week, will keep us pushing even harder in the weeks ahead!"
Third quickest was Pedro de la Rosa in the McLaren. The Spaniard, who lost track time in the early afternoon following an engine failure, posted a best time 0.62s off Raikkonen's best.
Fourth quickest was Franck Montagny in the Toyota. The Frenchman worked on various set-up options as well as evaluating the Bridgestone tyres and completed another day of trouble-free running.
"The conditions were more favourable today and I was able to make better progress," said Montagny, at the conclusion of the day's programme. "We did some suspension and general set-up work and I also carried out more tyre evaluation. Without the wind that we had yesterday it was easier to make some more meaningful judgements in preparation for the North American races. We are learning all the time."
"It has been a good comprehensive test and we have got through everything we wanted to do," added Gerd Pfeiffer. "Logistically a test with different circuit layouts is no more difficult to organise as long as you know what you want to achieve and you plan properly. It does not involve additional team personnel but what you do notice is that four days is harder work than the regular three days. I want to thank everyone for their efforts this week. We started with Ralf doing two days concentrating on Monte Carlo preparation, while Franck finished the test on the faster circuit layout with the emphasis on Canada and the USA. Both drivers had one day affected by winds but we collected a lot of data for analysis back in Cologne."
One week ahead of his favourite, and usually most successful race on the calendar, David Coulthard ended the day fifth quickest. Although running on the configuration that most closely resembles the demands of the Montreal track, Coulthard also did some work for the Monaco race, working on suspension development. After the difficulties of the Barcelona weekend, reliability was top of the agenda this week for the Austrian team.
"We have consolidated on our good result in Spain, by improving both in terms of performance and reliability," said Chief Test Engineer, Ian Morgan. "Even though a gearbox problem stopped David slightly early today, the component had exceeded its usual life and generally, we managed more than our target mileage over the four days. So we have moved forward, but of course, so have the other teams. The new race weekend timetable means we will be able to continue with some development work at the races."
It was another busy day for Super Aguri 'new boy' James Rossiter, who, for the second consecutive day, was the busiest man on duty, completing 132 laps in total.
"Over the last two days we have evaluated the downforce level of the Montreal spec aero package and also the tyre options for the race," said the Englishman. "We managed to get good balance and found some interesting points that may assist our performance. I have had a great first week with the team and am looking forward to travelling with them to Monaco."
Just one driver on duty for Spyker today, Adrian Sutil, and the German got the car off the bottom of the timesheets to finish seventh overall, ahead of BMW, Honda and Williams.
In clear, sunny conditions the German worked through a programme to evaluate tyres, brake balance and set-up for Canada. Over the course of the day, he completed over 400km with a best time of 1:29.869.
"We had a lot on the agenda to work through today," said the German. "We tried out the tyre options available for Canada and although we still have some difficulties trying to get the most out of them, we did make a big step with the car set-up, got some positive running in and made some improvements. We especially got some information about the car under braking, the balance was good and it looks hopeful for Canada."
"Great conditions today for testing," added Dominic Harlow. "Adrian worked on set-up options for Canada, tyre evaluation and continued a control systems programme. We made a small breakthrough with the car set-up that will particularly help the front-end performance and should pay real dividends in Monaco, Canada and Indy. A lot more data was collected and the team will go away to analyse it over the coming days. The next team test will be at our home circuit Silverstone following the USA GP where we hope to continue the development of the F8-VII and further reduce the gap to the cars ahead.'
It was a positive day for BMW, as Nick Heidfeld was able to cover 620 kilometres. The German started the day working on the set-up to suit his driving style. A major part of his programme was the comparison of the two tyre compounds that will be used for the next two races. In addition, he practiced some starts and evaluated different aerodynamic configurations.
Ninth quickest, but not much more off the pace than fifth-placed Coulthard, was Jenson Button in the Honda. The Englishman's early runs were spent acclimatising to the circuit before completing the aero programme. Unfortunately, following yesterday's engine failure which befell Christian Klien, a further engine failure late in the day curtailed Button's running today after 100 laps.
"It was a reasonable day today," said the Englishman, "and useful for me to experience the car on the Montreal configured circuit. Rubens and Christian had a busy week covering the work for Monaco so we should be well prepared going into the next few races. We will have to wait and see performance-wise, but I am particularly looking forward to Monaco next weekend as it is one of my home races."
Contrary to reports elsewhere, some of which had Kazuki Nakajima finishing as high as fifth, according to Williams' own timing the Japanese finished tenth quickest, 1.366s off Raikkonen's pace.
"We continued working through our extensive set-up schedule in preparation for Montreal and managed to complete the whole programme experiencing no problems on the car," said Dickie Stanford. "We've now concluded what was a constructive four day test and are looking forward to next week's race in Monaco."
Propping up the timesheets was Tonio Liuzzi in the Toro Rosso. Inevitably, after the Spanish Grand Prix, reliability was a key element of these past four days for the Italian team, and the programme at Paul Ricard was not trouble free. However, all the data gathered means the team now has a better understanding of the problems it faces in this area.
"In terms of performance, we ran across the range of aero settings, from maximum downforce for Monaco on the first two days, to minimum for Canada on these last two," said Chief Engineer, Laurent Mekies. "And we hope to have a new aero package in time for the Canadian Grand Prix.
"Overall therefore, this has been a productive four days," he added, "but we still have a lot of work to do to reach an acceptable level of reliability."