Minardi christens new car

The Hungarian driver completed 64 laps of the Italian circuit in the new car, which the team describes as an evolution of this season's PS03. Baumgartner set a best time of 1m11.080s.

"It has been a good day of testing," said Baumgartner. "I'm happy with the behaviour of the new car - it is more 'progressive' in its driving characteristics than the PS03 I drove in Valencia last month - and I'm also pleased to be feeling increasingly comfortable with both the driving and the team personnel."

Team boss Paul Stoddart was enthusiastic about the performance of the new car.

"This may have been only a shakedown test of the new car, but Zsolt's best lap today, of 1m11.080s, was two-and-a-half seconds faster than the quickest time the team recorded when it was last at Misano, with Mark Webber, in 2002," said Stoddart. "We take a lot of heart from today's performance and from that lap time."



"It is also noteworthy that today's times were set on an engine that had run for nearly 700km, giving us great faith that Cosworth has provided the team with a reliable, powerful engine that will be more than capable of coping with the new, 'long-distance' requirements specified by this year's F1 rules. We were also very pleased with the performance of the Bridgestone tyres today, which undoubtedly contributed to Zsolt's excellent lap times."

The team will continue running at Misano today, with Gianmaria Bruni driving.