29/08/2007
NEWS STORY
 |
It was a McLaren clean sweep at Monza today, when Fernando alonso topped the timesheets ahead of Lewis Hamilton. The Englishman had driven in the morning before handing over testing duties to his Spanish teammate, both drivers completing 49 laps.
Although there were a couple of rain showers during the afternoon, the predicted heavy downpour never arrived. Although much of the session took place under overcast skies, it remained warm at the Italian track, though thankfully, the humidity which had made conditions almost unbearable on Tuesday had subsided.
In the morning, Hamilton continued the programme of preparation for next week's Italian Grand Prix. Aero work was accompanied by further tyre comparisons over a couple of long runs.
As the test team changed the settings of the car for Alonso over lunch, there was a light rain shower, however the track had dried before the Spaniard took to the track at 14:00. On one of his first runs, the World Champion's car ground to a halt just yards outside the McLaren garage, causing panic among the Woking crew who were quick to form a protective wall around the stricken car. Though the assembled team members, with the help of security screens, were able to keep the photographers at bay, there were unable to shield the Spaniard from the jeering that emanated from the grandstand opposite... after all, this is Ferrari country.
Running until 17:00, Alonso carried on with the aerodynamic testing, whilst also spending some time focused on set-up and mechanical work.
Third quickest was Nick Heidfeld, as BMW continues to make impressive progress. The German continued working on the set-up of the car, concentrating mainly on mechanical adaptations. He also did a comparison of the two tyre compounds which will be used for the Italian Grand Prix.
Jarno Trulli continued for Toyota, the Italian focussing on developing the team's low downforce Monza aerodynamic package. Ralf Schumacher takes over driving duties tomorrow.
"We had a good day and improved many aspects of the car," said the Italian. "I was much happier with the braking stability and we also made strong progress with the aerodynamic set-up. We improved our lap time, which is positive, and I am now confident of a strong race here next week.
"The home fans are always passionate and enthusiastic," he added, "and I have seen that again these past two days. I hope that I can give them something to cheer!"
"Monza is a one-off in terms of car set-up," admitted test team manager, Gerd Pfeiffer, "but we made significant progress today, with both the aerodynamics and the brakes, which was satisfying.
"Jarno felt much more comfortable in the car and that is an important consideration at what is the fastest track on the Formula 1 calendar. Tomorrow we will start afresh with Ralf in the cockpit and, weather permitting, will complete our schedule of work."
Kimi Raikkonen continued with the programme begun on Tuesday, comprising finding the best set- up for the F2007 on this circuit and on development of new aerodynamic and mechanical solutions for the forthcoming race. Felipe Massa takes over from the Finn on Thursday.
After completing the first day of this week's test running a car fitted with the 2008-specification standard ECU, Renault's first full track test with this new component, the French team reverted to a more traditional programme for day two.
Heikki Kovalainen focused on set-up work while using the low downforce aero package. The team focused on finding a driveable baseline balance, and on comparisons between the two types of tyre that will be available next week, the soft and medium compounds.
Heikki completed the programme without any delays, completing a total of 76 laps and setting a best time of 1:24.093, which put him sixth on the final timesheets.
"We had a good day, and the car got better with every run," said the Finn. "We worked hard so that by the end of the day, the R27 was well-balanced. I think this will be a good baseline to work from on Friday at the Grand Prix, and at that time, we will focus on fine-tuning the set-up to extract the final tenths of a second for the race. The team did a good job today, and we made encouraging progress."
"We were lucky with the conditions today," admitted Christian Silk, "because we had been expecting rain. Heikki enjoyed a productive day of testing, made good progress with the programme and did some useful race preparation for next week. It was a positive day for us."
Seventh on the timesheets was Sebastian Vettel, who was the busiest driver today, completing 101 laps, equivalent to around two Grands Prix distances.
The STR2 ran reliably all day as the Italian outfit focussed on the evaluation of aerodynamic downforce levels with a new front and rear wing undergoing testing. Tonio Liuzzi takes over on Thursday.
Alex Wurz was on duty for Williams, the Austrian completing 71 laps on the way to posting a best time 1.201s off Alonso's pace. Wurz was one of three drivers to bring out the red flags today, when he suffered a technical failure, the others being Webber and Sato.
"We completed the majority of our planned programme, despite the couple of showers and a small technical problem in the afternoon," said Dickie Stanford. "Nico joins us for tomorrow's running, although with 80-85% humidity today, we are anticipating some wet weather tomorrow which may not allow us to complete our full programme."
Christian Klien took over from Barrichello at Honda. The Austrian began the morning with a series of short set-up runs to acclimatise to the circuit and establish a good set-up for the day. He then worked through an aero programme alongside a suspension evaluation. The afternoon session was concentrated on a tyre evaluation running both of the available compounds over longer runs. Jenson Button is at the wheel of the RA107 tomorrow.
Mark Webber continued for Red Bull, working on the Austrian team's aero package in the morning while the afternoon featured a tyre comparison, some work on brakes and evaluation of different suspension geometry. David Coulthard in on duty on Thursday.
Takuma Sato's programme was disrupted by two hydraulic problems, however he was able to successfully progress with the evaluation of the Monza aero package for Super Aguri.
Having successfully passed the FIA's rear impact test on Tuesday, Spyker's new B-spec challenger (below) was given its first full day of running today.
Adrian Sutil completed 76 laps and more than 400km with the new car, which will now make its race debut next week. Today's programme focussed on familiarisation work with the new car, optimising the low-downforce set-up needed for the forthcoming race and comparisons of the hard and soft tyres to be used next week.
The B-spec performed reliably throughout the day, although the programme was shortened slightly with a gearbox problem late in the afternoon. Sakon Yamamoto will take over driving duties tomorrow, his first time in the new B-spec and his first-ever test day for Spyker.
"Today was in general quite good," said Sutil. "We planned to do some more running but we had a small issue in the afternoon with the gearbox and lost a little time, but otherwise a good day. We worked on finding a good set-up for the race and understanding how the car behaves in low downforce configuration and also tried out the soft and harder tyres, which seemed to work well for us. It is difficult to say where we are with the new car; Monza is a very special track unlike anywhere else with less grip, but I think it was a good start."
"We joined the Monza test a day late with Adrian driving the 'B' spec chassis for its first full circuit test," said chief race and test engineer, Dominic Harlow. "Monza requires a specific aero package of which the validation process was started today. The circuit also makes high demands on the brakes, suspension over the kerbs in the chicanes, and on the engine with long periods of hard acceleration.
"During the day the team gathered data on all these areas and worked on particular developments for each of the systems. In terms of our preparation for the race here in ten days time our progress looks promising and we know that there is plenty of potential in the new car."
There is still uncertainty as to whether the teams will remain here for a fourth day of testing, with the decision ultimately dependent on weather conditions first thing tomorrow morning. Heavy rain has been predicted, however, they were sdaying that yesterday about today.
 |