16/03/2009
NEWS STORY
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Renault's Fernando Alonso upstaged both Brawn drivers at Jerez today as the Spaniard went quickest with a 1:18.343, the fastest lap posted at the Spanish track this year.
Once again, conditions were ideal with track temperatures in the region of 35°C to give the teams some valuable hot weather running.
At Renault, Alonso concentrated on an aero programme as the French team approved the final developments items that will be taken to Melbourne for next week's race. Nelson Piquet takes over the R29 for the team's final day of running tomorrow to complete the team's pre-season preparations.
"I'm happy with the day as we did more than a 100 laps," said Alonso, "which was our target for my final day of winter testing. This has been the first time we have run on a really hot track and the information we have from today will be very useful for the first few races, which are usually very hot. I'm also a bit sad that this is the final test of the year with my test team, but I will see them at the factory soon. I have to say thanks for the amazing job they have done this winter because we are really well prepared for the new season. We can go to Australia knowing that we have maximised the time we had
available."
"We had a good day," added Christian Silk, " with lots of work to get through and we ran to programme pretty much all day. The conditions were good for testing today as it was hot which leaves us well prepared for Melbourne and overall we we're happy with the results that we've got. I just want to say a big thanks to Fernando for the excellent job he has had done in winter: he's such a good test driver and has worked hard all winter to leave us well prepared for the start of the season."
Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button were both in action for Brawn and ended the day in second and third positions on the timesheets. The Brazilian was the first of the Brackley team's drivers on track to continue his programme from yesterday at the wheel of the BGP 001. He completed a series of set-up and tyre evaluations and covered 62 laps in the morning session.
Button took over the driving responsibilities for the afternoon and began a race simulation before a gearbox problem stopped the car out on the circuit and brought his running to an early conclusion after just 12 laps. The Englishman will continue the team's programme tomorrow for the final day of the test.
One day after its rivals, McLaren started its final test of the year. With Lewis Hamilton at the wheel, the day's programme began with the evaluation of a number of new aerodynamic modifications. After lunch, the World Champion ran a series of longer runs in order to assess the new aero package's effectiveness on tyre degradation.
Nico Rosberg was on duty for Williams, the German completing more laps than anyone else as he posted a best time 1.44s off Alonso's best.
"We completed a very full programme, with the majority of laps spent on set-up work," said Test Team Manager Dickie Stanford.