Toyota and Renault Continue Working at Paul Ricard

The Renault and Toyota teams today continued testing at the Paul Ricard circuit in France.

Renault were hampered by the rain yesterday, and despite a damp track they were able to complete several laps this afternoon. Spaniard Fernando Alonso was the quickest of the three men on track, setting a quickest time of 1:35.186 with the hybrid R202 chassis.

Teammate Jarno Trulli finished at the bottom of the times. Renault will test with the new R23 tomorrow.

"As the track was still damp from yesterday's rain, we lost the morning but we managed to cover a decent mileage with both drivers in the afternoon," said Renault's technical director Mike Gascoyne.

"Both Jarno and Fernando conducted a tyre programme for Michelin with Fernando running a revised spec engine."

Brazilian Ricardo Zonta made his debut as Toyota's test driver on Monday, and today completed a three-day test for the Japanese squad. Zonta, a former BAR driver, covered 53 laps today with the hybrid TF102B and set the second fastest time of the session.

"It's a great opportunity for me to be back in a Formula One car with Toyota," said Zonta. "My first impressions of driving the TF102B car showed me that there is a lot of potential in this package and a lot of power.

"We have done a lot of work with variable weather this week, in dry, wet and mixed track conditions. I am looking forward to my next test, hopefully in completely dry conditions."

Brazilian Cristiano da Matta was also on track this week, testing the new TF103 for the first time on Monday.

"I cannot say too much about the test on Monday to be honest," said the Brazilian. "I only did around 20 laps in the new TF103 and in the wet, so the conditions were not optimum to get a full feeling for the car.

"Having said that from the limited laps I had, I can already feel a big improvement from the last car and I hope to get some proper running in Valencia next week."

Renault will continue testing at Paul Ricard tomorrow.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Tyres Time Laps 1. Alonso Renault (M) 1:35.186 53 2. Zonta Toyota (M) 1:35.829 53 3. Trulli Renault (M) 1:36.235 33 All Timing Unofficial

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