The Mild Seven Renault F1 Team continued testing at Silverstone yesterday with Fernando Alonso and Jacques Villeneuve representing the team.

Fernando completed 110 laps, almost two race distances at the Northamptonshire circuit, and concentrated on tyre development for the final races of the season. He completed short performance runs in the morning and then longer endurance evaluations after lunch.

Jacques Villeneuve began acclimatising himself to the Renault R24 during  the day’s running.

The day’s programme was designed to give Jacques an opportunity to familiarise himself with the R24, and he therefore conducted eight long runs during the day, varying between four and nine laps, while also working to achieve a comfortable driving position within the car. His times improved steadily as the day advanced and he completed a total of 68 laps.

After the day’s running, Villeneuve commented:

“We had a good first day, although it wasn’t about chasing quick times: the first priority was to get a comfortable driving position within the car, and we have worked away at that all day. I had expected things to be more difficult physically because the lap-times are a lot faster than when I last drove in F1, and Silverstone is possibly the most physically demanding circuit of all, but I feel fine. The R24 seems a nice car and handles well, but our aim today was to begin learning about the car – we did not work on set-ups at all. Overall, we made good progress.”