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Force India Monza Test Summary
By Karl King August 30 2008
The Force India F1 Team were out in action at Monza during the week for a three day test ahead of the Italian GP in three weeks time. Force India used all three of its drivers over the course of the test to collate information relating to the unique set-up of the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza. Encouragingly, over the course of the three days, the team's fastest time got faster and faster!

Test driver Tonio Liuzzi kicked off the test for FI on Wednesday in warm, sunny conditions. On home soil, the Italian set the 8th fastest time of the day in one of 99 laps completed. Liuzzi said it took some time to adjust to the Monza set-up VJM01, especially after not being in the car for so long, " this morning the grip levels were very low and it was quite difficult with the tyres we had, and especially as I had not been in the car for some time for a real test."

Full Wednesday times, from Renault F1 Blog:

1 MAS 1:23.428 101
2 KOV 1:23.439 78
3 ROS 1:23.461 60
4 VET 1:23.691 99
5 BAR 1:23.827 85
6 WEB 1:24.005 96
7 HEI 1:24.075 77
8 LIU 1:24.239 99
9 TRU 1:25.510 92
10 PIQ 1:24.540 117

Adrian Sutil took over on Thursday and managed to better Liuzzi's lap time by over three tenths. Adrian commented, "I felt comfortable in the car and we could do a lot of laps and found some items that will help us move forward and prepare for the race here. We had some work to do to find a good set-up that works over the kerbs and in the slow corners without losing time on braking or on the straights, and also trying to get a good setup with the inertia dampers."

Full Thursday times from Renault F1 Blog:

1 HEI 1:22.621 89
2 ROS 1:22.879 100
3 KOV 1:23.341 92
4 VET 1:23.424 47
5 MAS 1:23.445 86
6 ALO 1:23.606 95
7 SUT 1:23.823 92
8 WEB 1:23.936 101
9 TRU 1:24.158 77
10 BOU 1:24.311 44
11 BAR 1:24.695 51
12 BUT 1:25.049 42

And on Friday, Giancarlo Fisichella managed to go almost two tenths quicker still - fast enough for the thrid fastest time of the day behind the McLaren and Ferrari.

He said, "Today we made some positive steps forward for the Italian Grand Prix, particularly with the balance and set-up. I could push, particularly in the afternoon and the pace over the longer runs was also good. You never know what the other teams are doing with their own programmes, but I think the race will be very close between us and Honda."

Full Friday times from Renault F1 Blog:

1 HAM 1:22.967 97
2 RAI 1:23.371 79
3 FIS 1:23.632 114
4 NAK 1:23.634 99
5 COU 1:23.737 120
6 ALO 1:23.820 80
7 BOU 1:23.865 77
8 GLO 1:23.897 79
9 KUB 1:24.089 57
10 BUT 1:24.321 96

F1 will return to Monza for the GP on 14 September, two weeks after the Belgian GP.

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