Virgin still hindered by hydraulic issue

The team has been unable to get as much running as it was hoping due to continued hydraulic problems in the VR-01 car, both at Jerez last week and at Barcelona in the final test of the pre-season.

Virgin has managed just 159 laps in total over the four days of the Barcelona test.

Technical director Nick Wirth said the team will introduce new parts in the first race of the season in Bahrain, in the hope that it will solve the issues that have hindered its preparations ahead of its first ever grand prix.

"Once again, our running today has been heavily compromised by the re-occurrence of the hydraulic leak," said Wirth. "We have new components designed to fix this issue on their way for the Bahrain race and we're looking forward to putting that particular story behind us.

"Lucas did manage to conduct some productive race work but we leave Barcelona having never run a qualifying simulation or the super soft tyres that all our competitors are likely to have set their times on.

"Now both Virgin Racing and Wirth Research have a busy two weeks preparing both race cars and spares for our debut in Bahrain."