13/01/2010
NEWS STORY
 |
Following on from yesterday's wet start to Michael Schumacher's GP2 development test in Jerez, similar weather today meant he was unable to run on slicks today until 10.30, and even then the track was never dry enough to be quick.
The Mercedes driver completed 78 laps in total today, including 53 on slick tyres. However, the session was cut one hour short by the poor weather conditions.
Today's programmed revolved around working on the rear suspension, running more extreme set ups than normally seen in the series: the aim of these changes was to define the technical parameters, as the third generation GP2 car will feature a completely new and redesigned rear suspension.
"We made a big step forward today as we were able to drive for around 90 percent of the time in the dry which was an improvement on the track conditions from yesterday," said Schumacher. "We achieved two long runs which went very well and provided consistent data for the GP2 guys to
evaluate. The forecast looks even better for tomorrow so we can look forward to a good final day."
"Despite the weather this has been a productive day," added GP2 Series Technical director Didier Perrin, "which was vital as we could not really complete our programme on the first day: thanks to Michael's impressive feedback we now have the technical orientations for the rear suspension. Hopefully tomorrow's weather will allow us to add more long runs to our programme, and give us even more information for the next car."