Jerez Testing, Day 1, 10/02/2009

The ING Renault F1 Team was back in action today to begin its second winter test session of the year at the Jerez circuit in the south of Spain. Nelson Piquet was the man behind the wheel of the R29 as he continued the team's development programme.

However, poor weather conditions meant the track was damp for much of the day, which limited the team's progress. Despite the rain showers, the team was able to work on the on-track development of its KERS system, which will continue throughout the week.

Better conditions are forecast for tomorrow when Nelson will remain in the car for a second day of work. He will then hand the R29 over to Fernando Alonso for Thursday and Friday.

Nelson Piquet: "It's a shame that we lost some track time today because at this stage of the season we need to get as many miles on the car as possible. As the car is so new, we learn something with every lap and we have some useful data to go through this evening. The forecast looks better for tomorrow so hopefully we can continue the work we started today."

Christian Silk, Chief Test Engineer: "The track was inconsistent today because of the weather, but it dried out by the end of the day and we put a couple of long runs together and the car behaved well and gave us some good data. The forecast looks much better for the rest of the week so that should allow us to continue learning about the car."