24/06/2008
NEWS STORY
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Just twenty-four hours after his win at Magny-Cours, Felipe Massa was setting the pace at Silverstone, as all ten teams began their preparations for next week's British Grand Prix.
The World Championship leader worked on development of new aerodynamic and mechanical solutions, as well as taking an initial look at set-up of the car for the Grand Prix, which takes place on 6th July.
The Brazilian completed 71 laps on the way to posting a best time of 1.20:188. However, a mechanical problem saw the Ferrari driver, who continues here tomorrow, stop out on track towards the end of the session, preventing the completion of the programme.
Second quickest, 0.289s off Massa's pace, was Heikki Kovalainen, who will surely be looking for a podium finish next week. For the Woking out fit, today's test was all about the evaluation of a new fuel and formulation of (Mobil 1) lubricant, together with initial evaluation of new aero parts and mileage out on new mechanical components.
While Heikki continues here tomorrow, the many fans who have paid (£12) to attend the test - which is sold out for all three days - will be looking forward to Thursday when local hero Lewis Hamilton will be in the MP4-23.
Third quickest, albeit 0.807s off the pace, was Canada winner Robert Kubica, as BMW attempt to put its Magny-Cours misery behind it. The Pole completed 82 laps, experiencing no technical problems, as he tried different set-up options. The programme also included work on the F1.08's aerodynamics, including a new front wing, which the German team hopes will result in a return to form next week.
With the team still on a high from the result at Magny-Cours, where Jarno Trulli achieved an emotional podium finish, Toyota had Kamui Kobayashi at the wheel for his Silverstone debut. After learning the track early on, the Japanese youngster he put in 82 laps of work on aerodynamics and set-up.
"This was the first ever time that I've driven here at Silverstone," said Kobayashi, "although I went around on a scooter yesterday to check the track. This morning I spent the early laps getting used to the circuit. It's fun to drive and I especially liked the sweeping, high-speed corners at Becketts. The last sector is tricky, especially the double hairpin at Luffield where it is difficult to find the perfect line. We spent the day testing set-ups and different aerodynamic configurations. We made it through our programme so it was a good day."
"Today Kamui began the programme with work on aerodynamics and set-up," added Gerd Pfeiffer. "As this was the first time he has ever driven at Silverstone he took a couple of runs getting used to the track in the morning. From then on he worked well, completing many laps and getting through everything we had planned. Tomorrow Jarno will take over as we continue to push in preparation for the grand prix here next week."
Fifth quickest was Nico Rosberg, as Williams looks for an improvement in form for Silverstone and beyond, the Grove outfit having failed to score points in the last two races.
"In readiness for the race here in just under two weeks, we worked through a number of set-up items and completed our scheduled programme without any problems," said Test Team Manager, Dickie Stanford.
For Red Bull, Mark Webber on duty, working on various aero and mechanical development programmes. There were no problems and the team completed more than the planned mileage, which could be a good thing as there is talk of rain on Wednesday. The Australian is due to continue driving on Wednesday when the emphasis changes to preparations for the GP, looking at car set-up and evaluation of the tyres on offer.
Having opened his points account at the weekend, Nelson Piquet was back on duty for Renault. The Brazilian began working on the team's busy technical programme by completing basic set-up work to dial the car into the circuit in preparation for next week's race. With perfect weather conditions prevailing throughout the day, the team was able to complete a valuable day's work, completing a total of 68 laps with just a few unscheduled interruptions to the programme.
Piquet will remain in the R28 for his final day of running tomorrow before Fernando Alonso takes over for the final day on Thursday.
"The track conditions were quite green and dirty to begin with," said Piquet, "but once the track cleaned up it was fine. We spent the day working on the set-up of the car, which went well and towards the end of the day the car had improved a lot. We had a few interruptions and so didn't do as much running as we could have, but it's a good basis for tomorrow when we will continue with the work we started today."
"We go quite a lot of work done today," added Christian Silk, "and although we had a few difficulties during the day, we were able to cover a lot of the stuff that we needed to. We concentrated on basic pre-Grand Prix set-up work, as well as some aerodynamic testing, and started some tyre evaluation, which we will continue in the coming days."
Jenson Button began work for Honda, the Englishman driving for the first two days of the programme before handing over to Rubens Barrichello on Thursday. Button covered 91 laps as he worked through a series of aerodynamic evaluations.
Tonio Liuzzi was the busiest driver today, the Force India test driver covering 108 laps of the Northamptonshire track as the team tested a major aerodynamic upgrade for the VJM01. The Italian also worked on set-up and preparation for the forthcoming race.
"Today was a long day with a lot of laps and fortunately the weather stayed dry and we could get some consistent running," said the Italian. "The guys did a really good job and the car was very reliable. As a result it was a good day of testing. The new parts we ran gave a positive impact on the car and Giancarlo and Adrian will have some more bits to test for the rest of the test. We covered a lot of miles and did some quick laps and the balance of the car felt better. The new package is working well so far and hopefully in the next two days we will improve the speed as well."
"A very useful and busy day of testing," added Mike Gascoyne, "with Tonio completing 108 laps in total. We had the first stage of our major aero update, running a new front wing, bodywork and diffuser, which all ran successfully and performed exactly as predicted. Tonio also tested a new fuel system and went on to do set up work for the Grand Prix. For tomorrow and Adrian's running on Thursday we have some further major aerodynamic and suspension updates, so today was overall a very useful first day knowing there is more to come.'
It was a frustrating day for Sebastian Vettel. a technical problem early in the day binging Toro Rosso's session to a premature end. However, the STR3 should be repaired by tomorrow morning and the driver scheduling has now changed so that the German will get a full day tomorrow on a circuit he does not know, while Sebastien Bourdais will take over on Thursday.