Brawn GP completes first full day of testing
The Brawn GP Formula One Team's 2009 car, the BGP 001, made its full track debut at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain today following an initial shakedown at Silverstone, UK on 6 March.
The Brawn GP Formula One Team's 2009 car, the BGP 001, made its full track debut at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain today following an initial shakedown at Silverstone, UK on 6 March.
Taking to the track to participate in the group test session, the BGP 001
showed encouraging reliability and pace as the team intensifies its
preparations for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on 29
March. With only seven days of testing between now and the first race, the
team's test programme has been carefully planned to ensure a balance between
reliability checks and improving the overall performance of the car.
Driving responsibilities over the four-day test will be shared by the team's
race drivers Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello. After shaking down the car
at Silverstone, Jenson had the opportunity to evaluate the car on a full Grand
Prix circuit for the first time today. In addition to completing a reliability
and set-up programme with the new chassis, he worked through new tyre
evaluations using the Bridgestone Potenza slicks and completed a race start
simulation.
Jenson completed 82 laps over the course of the day and set the fourth fastest
time overall. Team-mate Rubens will join the Brawn GP team in Barcelona
tomorrow to take over the BGP 001 car from Jenson.
JENSON BUTTON
"It has been a good first day in the BGP 001 with our new team, Brawn GP. I'd
like to start by thanking everyone at the team for all the hard work that has
contributed to getting us here today. We have enjoyed a positive opening day
of running at our first test and achieved a total of 82 laps, which we are all
very pleased with. We did experience a problem with the gearbox late in the
day but we knew we might face some reliability issues in view of our lack of
testing. Fortunately, it's a minor problem that is easily addressed. It's
early days yet but generally it has been a positive start to our pre-season
preparations."
RESULTS (All timings are unofficial)
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 1:20.338 96
2. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:20.908 81
3. Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:20.937 121
4. Jenson Button Brawn GP 1:21.140 82
5. Nelson Piquet Renault 1:21.662 126
6. Sebastien Bourdais Toro Rosso 1:22.158 86
7. Mark Webber Red Bull 1:22.246 117
8. Adrian Sutil Force India 1:22.452 129
9. Kazuki Nakajima Williams 1:22.813 111
10. Heikki Kovalainen McLaren 1:22.948 90
