By Renault F1
May 12 2006

The Renault F1 Team today completed a trouble-free opening day of practice at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya, ahead of Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix. Alonso finished the session in 3rd place while Fisichella managed 7th The Renault F1 Team today completed a trouble-free opening day of practice at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya, ahead of Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix.


Already in 2006, the trend has been for each team’s race drivers to run relatively little on Friday in order to economise engine mileage. At a circuit such as Barcelona, where every team completes thousands of kilometres of testing mileage during the winter, this was even more the case. At Renault, the objective was to evaluate the two types of Michelin tyre available this weekend, as Barcelona is a particularly hard circuit for the tyres owing to the numerous high-speed corners in its layout. This was completed without any particular problems, and the team will now set to work analysing the results of the tests in order to make the best choice for tomorrow’s qualifying session but, most importantly, Sunday’s race.

Fernando Alonso, P3, 18 laps total, 1:16.860
It was fantastic to start running today in Barcelona. After months of testing here with empty grandstands, I think all the drivers will have enjoyed driving in front of some spectators, not just me! But I don’t think that the Friday at any other circuit has the same level of emotion as we saw from the fans today, it was wonderful to see them all around the circuit. In terms of our programme, it was all OK. We checked the tyres and didn’t have any big problems, because the results were quite similar to the test. I am looking forward to qualifying and the race, and I hope I can give the fans something to enjoy!

Giancarlo Fisichella, P7, 19 laps total, 1:17.291
Today wasn’t perfect for us and I think we still have quite a lot of room for improvement. At the moment, the car does not feel fantastic. Compared to the test, the track is very slippery and the grip is quite low. The balance of the car was pretty good, but we need to improve the grip level of the car for tomorrow.

Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering
We took a slightly different approach to our programme today. Barcelona may be a circuit at which we conduct a significant proportion of our testing programme, but it is also a track at which tyre choice is critical. This is because of the circuit’s severity on the tyres, as there are many long, high-speed corners. We therefore completed some longer runs this afternoon to assess the tyre performance, and we are very pleased with the results.

Denis Chevrier, Head of Trackside Engine Operations
This is a circuit which changes a lot during the day, and this morning’s rain shower added a further unknown factor to the mix before we began running. Indeed, this was primarily a day for assessing and fine-tuning chassis performance. From an engine point of view, Barcelona is a circuit we know very well, and at which we have already tested with the B-specification engine. As such, we ran through our normal checks on Fernando’s race-old engine, and Giancarlo’s new one. Everything ran smoothly and we collected plenty of useful data


Spanish Grand Prix free practice session 2 results


1. DAVIDSON Honda 1m16.533s

2. DOORNBOS Red Bull 1m16.824s

3. ALONSO Renault 1m16.860s

4. WURZ Williams 1m17.075s

5. KLIEN Red Bull 1m17.086s

6. M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari 1m17.100s

7. FISICHELLA Renault 1m17.291s

8. BUTTON Honda 1m17.414s

9. BARRICHELLO Honda 1m17.417s

10. R.SCHUMACHER Toyota 1m17.506s

11. TRULLI Toyota 1m17.610s

12. HEIDFELD BMW 1m17.622s

13. KUBICA BMW 1m17.844s

14. WEBBER Williams 1m17.908s

15. RAIKKONEN McLaren 1m17.933s

16. VILLENEUVE BMW 1m18.007s

17. MASSA Ferrari 1m18.223s

18. MONTOYA McLaren 1m18.261s

19. ROSBERG Williams 1m18.283s

20. COULTHARD Red Bull 1m18.410s

21. JANI Toro Rosso 1m18.774s

22. MONDINI Midland 1m18.910s

23. SPEED Toro Rosso 1m19.257s

24. LIUZZI Toro Rosso 1m19.334s

25. ALBERS Midland 1m19.358s

26. SATO Super Aguri 1m19.616s

27. MONTEIRO Midland 1m20.311s

28. MONTAGNY Super Aguri 1m22.222s


Spanish Grand Prix free practice session 1 results


1. MASSA Ferrari 1m15.796s

2. M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari 1m16.099s

3. WURZ Williams 1m16.125s

4. KUBICA BMW 1m16.628s

5. DAVIDSON Honda 1m16.961s

6. DOORNBOS Red Bull 1m17.424s

7. JANI Toro Rosso 1m19.720s

8. MONDINI Midland 1m20.708s

9. SATO Super Aguri 1m20.744s

10. MONTAGNY Super Aguri no time

11. SPEED Toro Rosso no time

12. WEBBER Williams no time

13. TRULLI Toyota no time

14. ALBERS Midland no time

15. ROSBERG Williams no time

16. MONTEIRO Midland no time

17. R.SCHUMACHER Toyota no time

18. BUTTON Honda no time

19. LIUZZI Toro Rosso no time

20. HEIDFELD BMW no time

21. MONTOYA McLaren no time

22. VILLENEUVE BMW no time

23. COULTHARD Red Bull no time

24. KLIEN Red Bull no time

25. BARRICHELLO Honda no time

26. ALONSO Renault no time

27. FISICHELLA Renault no time

28. RAIKKONEN McLaren no time