Fernando Alonso, R25-02, 86 laps, 344 kmGiancarlo Fisichella, R24-08, 90 laps, 360 km

The third day of testing in Valencia yesterday saw weather conditions improve: in spite of very cold temperatures, around 0°C for much of the day, the winds of the last two days lessened, leaving much more representative conditions for the new R25.

Fernando Alonso completed a third day at the wheel of the car after restricted running earlier in the week. He began working on set-up changes with the new car, and assessing its behaviour on longer runs. This allowed the team to begin establishing baseline knowledge about the new car.

As for Giancarlo Fisichella, he completed a final day at the wheel of the R24, with his main work being a race distance run as part of a tyre development programme. He will drive the R25 tomorrow.

Chief Test Engineer Christian Silk commented:

“We made good progress with our programme today and began learning about the new car’s characteristics. At this stage, it is important to properly understand the effect of set-up changes and to establish references for our future work. With this in mind, it was encouraging to see the car perform consistently on long runs, and that Fernando was pleased with the handling. Giancarlo is looking forward to his first drive tomorrow.”