Day two of the German driver’s programme in Jerez, Spain Following on from yesterday’s wet start to Michael Schumacher’s GP2 development test in Jerez, today’s similar state of the circuit did not allow him to run on slicks until 10.30, and even then the track was never dry enough to be quick. The Mercedes GP PETRONAS driver completed 78 laps in total today, including 53 on slick tyres.

The session was cut one hour short by the poor weather conditions. Today’s programmed revolved around working on the rear suspension, running more extreme set ups than  normally  seen  in  the  series:  the  aim  of  these  changes  was  to  define  the  technical parameters,  as  the  third  generation  GP2  car  will  feature  a  completely  new  and  redesigned  rear suspension. Michael Schumacher said: “We made a big step forward today as we were able to drive for around 90 percent of the time in the dry which was an improvement on the track conditions from yesterday. We achieved two long runs which went very well and provided consistent data for the GP2 guys to evaluate. The forecast looks even better for tomorrow so we can look forward to a good final day.”

GP2 Series Technical director Didier Perrin said: “Despite the weather this has been a productive day,  which  was  vital  as  we  could  not  really  complete  our  programme  on  the  first  day:  thanks  to Michael’s  impressive  feedback  we  now  have  the  technical  orientations  for  the  rear  suspension. Hopefully tomorrow’s weather will allow us to add more long runs to our programme, and give us even more information for the next car.” The development test session will conclude tomorrow.