Renault evaluates Suzuka tyres

Renault has been tipped as a pre-event favourite at the twisting Japanese track, and the Anglo-French team is seen as a viable bet to repeat its Hungarian GP victory. It decided to sacrifice some of its Indy track time to check out the Suzuka tyres, something it did at the German GP prior to the Hungarian success.

"A productive morning for us during which we were able to evaluate our Suzuka tyres as well as conducting our normal work for the race," said engineering chief Pat Symonds. "The general balance of the cars is close, and if the rain which is forecast for tomorrow comes, we will have fully exploited the advantage this extra session gives us."

Jarno Trulli was fastest in the test, a feat he repeated in the hour of free practice that followed.

Allan McNish, the team's test driver, said: "From my point of view, I'm pleased with the work we managed to do this morning. All three cars completed a good amount of mileage, and we managed to test some tyres for Suzuka in addition to our work for this race.

"On the chassis side, we need to work to dial out some understeer and improve the low-speed grip, but these are areas that you always need to work on here. This year, we have already proved that we are competitive on every type of circuit, and I think our pace this morning is encouraging."