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McLaren likely to race new wing in Spain

McLaren test driver Pedro de la Rosa thinks it is likely that the team will race with their new radical front wing at next week's Spanish Grand Prix, following evaluation of it during testing in Barcelona this week

The Woking-based outfit caused a stir at the start of testing on Monday when their MP4-22 was fitted an extra wing element that was mounted onto the front wing endplates and spanned across the nose.

Although back-to-back evaluation of this wing set-up against the normal configuration has shown only a slight improvement, de la Rosa thinks the benefits are enough to justify bringing the wing into action for world champion Fernando Alonso's home race next weekend.

"It's been a positive test," de la Rosa told autosport.com. "Some days were lost because of the weather, but all in all the new aero package was good.

"I think the wing is likely to be introduced at the next race. Let's say that Fernando and I both felt that there was a small improvement with the wing."

Although rivals Ferrari appeared to have the edge in the test, topping the times on two out of the three days, de la Rosa feels that the relatively competitiveness of the two teams could shift around because of the weather.

The conditions also meant that the fastest tyre in the test may not be the best one for next week's race.

"In this week's conditions the medium (the softer of the two tyres used) was the faster," he said. "But it was unusually colder than normal. We may see a bit higher temperature in one week's time, so let's wait and see."

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