When the lights turned green for FP1, Fisichella was first out on track, the Italian seeming eager to get on with things. However, he did not put in a wowing lap time - 19th fastest ahead of Barrichello who only completed 4 laps.

Adrian was 18th, a few hundredths faster, the German having a very minor excursion across the grass during the session. Sutil spoke of the new inertia damper that featured on the VJM01 during the test last week, "We did some positive work this morning with the damper, it feels quite good and now we have to decide whether we use it or not for the race, but I feel pretty confident when we do run it."

A relatively low-key second session saw Adrian post the 19th fastest time, ahead only of Jarno Trulli who crashed out. He's optimistic, though, "I saw the potential today and on different laps I've had sectors that have looked quite good, now we just have to put it all together."

Giancarlo fared better, managing the 16th fastest time, ahead also of Bourdais and Piquet. Fisico said, "We have made a small step forward with the new package and over the longer runs there seems to be a more consistent balance and under braking the car feels more stable. We're getting there, but the other teams have also made some improvements and there is still some work to do."

Mike Gascoyne concluded, "We ran the front inertial damper for the first time on both cars, and the performance seemed positive. Overall the package of improvements we've got here seem to be working well and we appear to be closer to the midfield group.

"We just have to see what the weather brings for the next two days." 

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