By IANS
Jerez (Spain) : Force India’s lead driver Giancarlo Fisichella got up to competitive pace even as the times dropped sharply on the concluding day of the penultimate Formula One winter tests here.
Fisichella put in quicker laps Thursday than team mates Vitantonio Liuzzi (Tuesday) and Adrian Sutil (Wednesday) as he did 89 laps with a best of one minute, 20.669 seconds that placed him 11th overall among 16 drivers.
“Today was a good day. We were able to put in a lot of laps without any major problems and I felt more comfortable in the car. We worked through a programme of set-up and some development items and even with a reasonable fuel load we were still able to put in some competitive times. I’m looking forward to the next test (Barcelona, Feb 25-27) when we will have some more new items on the VJM01 and we’ll have a more representative indication of where we are,” said Fisichella in a press release.
Chief race and test engineer Dominic Harlow added: “A good day to complete the test here in Jerez. Again very nice conditions this morning allowed some progress on set-up to be made. On top of this a range of other test items were covered and the team will return to Silverstone having completed the major objectives for this test to begin preparation for the final ‘Race Team’ test prior to the first Grand-Prix of 2008 in 30 days time.”
Topping the time charts was McLaren’s new signing Heikki Kovalainen with a 1:17.974, well clear of his team-mate Lewis Hamilton who was fourth with a 1:19.429.
In second spot was David Coulthard of Red Bull Racing (1:18.485) with Kazuki Nakajima of Williams in third (1:19.117).