Alonso leads test at Barcelona


Both tested

By role
April 7 2004

Spanish Driver Fernando Alonso topped the times yesterday on the first day of testing at the Montmeló track in Barcelona. The Spaniard completed 101 laps, 468 km, to set a best time of 1.15.269, less than 0.2 seconds better that Anthony Davidson on his BAR Honda. His teammate, Italian Jarno Trulli, was also testing at the track. he was the first driver to test both the aero and engine evolutions that renault plan to introduce for Imola in three weeks time.

The Italian was able to run only 55 laps on the new package. He was satisfied on the gains achieved with the improvements. However, he was unable to complete any timed laps during the afternoon session owing to a hydraulic problem on chassis 05.

Alonso conducted set-up work with the R24, experimenting with new settings and finding some useful steps forward. He also ran a short compound test, but didn't report any progress.

"Overall, we had a reasonable first day in Barcelona. The new developments ran without problems on Jarno's car, and performed as we had predicted. We will continue to learn about them during the rest of the week. Tomorrow, both drivers will run the new engine specification: Jarno will complete a race distance, while Fernando will concentrate on tyre and set-up work." Said Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering.

The team will continue to test during this week at the Spanish Track.

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