Force India’s new machine debuts in test session

By IANS

Jerez (Spain) : Force India’s striking new machine in livery of gold, white and tungsten made its track debut and was two seconds off the pace as the Formula One teams commenced yet another three-day test session at the 4.428-km circuit here.


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Force India’s test and reserve driver Vitantonio Liuzzi clocked a best of one minute, 21.553 seconds compared to 1:19.102 that McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton did to head the time charts here Tuesday.

It put Liuzzi 15th among 16 drivers who tested, only ahead of Honda’s Alex Wurz who had a 1:21.950, and behind Super Aguri’s Takuma Sato (1:21.400).

Liuzzi, who completed 103 laps, said in a statement: “Today was a good day. We managed to do a lot of mileage, which was the target today following the shortened days we have had at the previous tests. We had a few items to test for the new car and managed to complete the programme with some promising progress.

“As I had a full day I was able to get more comfortable in the car and feel very positive about it. We now need to put all the information together, look through the data and keep everything going forward.”

Dominic Harlow, chief race and test engineer, said: “A day of very different conditions morning and afternoon here. The circuit was near perfect at the start of the morning session with the usual quick lap times for some teams. We concentrated instead on race fuel levels and building gearbox development mileage. Tonio also completed a number of tests on the some new braking system components and revised electrical hardware.”

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