Day one for the Renault F1 Team at the Paul Ricard

After their win last Sunday in Australia, the Renault F1 Team stay focused and carry on with their testing programme with a three day test session this week at the Paul Ricard Circuit.

Heikki Kovalainen was the only Renault driver on track today but he will be joined tomorrow by Giancarlo Fisichella who will stay for the duration of the session. The team will have two R26 chassis running this week.

Kovalainen today's programme was mainly focused on the development of the a new engine evolution as well as an important tyre programme with Michelin in order to prepare the first European meeting, in Imola in two weeks time.

To take benefit of the two cars available today and optimize his time at the wheel, Heikki Kovalainen ran the two chassis today. He was able to complete 137 laps. After a productive opening day, he set the fastest time of the day in 1: 04.927.

Christian Silk, Chief Test Engineer: "We've had quite a busy day with two cars to run with just one driver! We had a few small problems today but they did not delay our programme. We worked on interesting directions for the first European races. We completed an important programme of tyre testing today and Heikki seemed quite happy with it"

DRIVER/TEAM/BEST/LAPS1 KOVALAINEN Renault 1 :04.927 1372 DE LA ROSA McLaren 1 :05.028 503 KUBICA BMW 1 :05.075 1504 ZONTA Toyota 1 :05.291 1425 PAFFET McLaren 1 :05.534 846 PANIS Toyota 1 :05.754 1097 VILLENEUVE BMW 1 :05.812 938 DOORNBOS Red Bull 1:06.420 58