Renault End Alone at Paul Ricard
Renault found themselves with exclusive use of the Paul Ricard track for testing in France on Friday after BAR decided to call off its day's running because of the poor weather conditions
With BAR hoping to get some valuable mileage on a new development engine from Honda, the team were convinced that the damp track in the morning would not dry enough by the afternoon to allow them to complete their programme. Jenson Button, who had been due to run, left at lunchtime as soon as his team decided to call it a day.
Renault, meanwhile, still felt there was enough valuable work to be done and their decision was fully justified as the track dried throughout the afternoon. In the end, Heikki Kovalainen edged out his fellow test driver Franck Montagny by just more than four tenths of a second.
The French manufacturer, the pace-setter so far this season, allowed their two test drivers to get fully up to speed with the R25 and settled on their final tyre specification for Bahrain and made some evaluations for the San Marino Grand Prix.
Renault's chief test engineer Christian Silk was delighted with the amount of work completed this week - despite the weather scaring away some of his rival teams.
"This week it has been good," he told Autosport-Atlas. "We finished the Bahrain programme and also allowed both boys to be really comfortable with the new car."
Today's times:
Pos Driver Team-Engine Tyres Time Laps 1. Kovalainen Renault (M) 1:04.060 130 2. Montagny Renault (M) 1:04.477 148All Timing Unofficial
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