Kimi four tenths off of Renault - still!
By Karl King
April 28 2006
The final day of the Silverstone test saw McLaren again not being able to find that elusive four tenths to Renault. Giancarlo Fisichella topped the timesheets whilst Kimi Raikkonen was almost half a second behind. Heikki Kovalainen underlined the good Renault form, his lap time just a tenth off of Kimi.
The track was red flagged eleven times during the day, with nine of those occuring during the morning session where Kimi Raikkonen set his time of 1m18.978.
KIMI RAIKKONEN
"We have had some productive feedback over the last two days at Silverstone, with good information on set-ups and Michelins to take into the British Grand Prix in June. As the last test before the Spanish race, we have also been focusing on completing the selection process for Barcelona with Michelin."
Juan Pablo was on track during the day, setting the sixth fastest time of the day. Juan Pablo has been the busiest McLaren tester during the week, attending all three days and completing 785km.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA
"It has been good to test at Silverstone before the race here, as it means we have positive data to use going into the weekend, but there have been a lot of red flags that really do interrupt the programme. It has been really noticeable here how much faster you are through the corners now we have V8 engines, Copse, for example, is really fast and you don't really lift."
The only team to front three drivers during the day, Gary Paffett was also on track in the MP4-20. The Briton only completed 7 laps of his home track, just giving the car a shakedown before it runs at Goodwood later in the year. Predictably Gary was faster than only the MF1 of Adrian Sutil.
|
Driver |
Constructor |
Time |
Laps |
|---|---|---|---|
| Giancarlo Fisichella | Renault | 1m18.503 | 124 |
| Kimi Raikkonen | Team McLaren Mercedes | 1m18.978 | 93 |
| Heikki Kovalainen | Renault | 1m19.096 | 106 |
| Robert Kubica | BMW Sauber | 1m19.623 | 38 |
| Christian Klien | Red Bull Racing | 1m19.676 | 40 |
| Juan Pablo Montoya | Team McLaren Mercedes | 1m19.761 | 40 |
| Anthony Davidson | Honda Racing | 1m19.910 | 85 |
| David Coulthard | Red Bull Racing | 1m20.007 | 84 |
| Tonio Luizzi | Toro Rosso | 1m20.083 | 71 |
| Rubens Barrichello | Honda Racing | 1m20.508 | 101 |
| Mark Webber | Williams F1 | 1m20.842 | 105 |
| Christijan Albers | MF1 Racing | 1m20.987 | 43 |
| Alex Wurz | Williams F1 | 1m21.190 | 109 |
| Gary Paffett | Team McLaren Mercedes | 1m21.888 | 7 |
| Adrian Sutil | MF1 Racing | 1m25.400 | 10 |
Times from Team McLaren Mercedes