McLaren finish final test on a positive note
The McLaren Mercedes team completed the final test session before the start of the 2006 season on Wednesday, with Kimi Räikkönen and Pedro de la Rosa covering 940km between them at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo, Valencia, on the way to Kimi setting the fastest time of the day.
Kimi’s programme saw the Finn continue set-up development work in the MP4-21 with his race engineer in preparation for the opening Grands Prix. He completed 121 laps of the track and topped the timesheets for the day and the week with a 1m09.423.
Pedro de la Rosa began the week on Monday driving the MP4-21. The two cars that were at the Barcelona test last week had returned to the McLaren Technology Centre to leave for Bahrain, with chassis one returning to testing duties at the hands of the Spaniard. A productive day saw Pedro complete 593km in the MP4-21. The track was wet at the beginning of the day, from overnight rain, and this allowed the test team and Pedro to work on the development programme for the intermediate Michelin tyres. As the track dried out, Pedro switched to dry tyres and concentrated on achieving a good mileage total for the day.
Kimi arrived in Spain on Tuesday to take over testing with the MP4-21. The Finn covered nearly 300km at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo, with sunny and warm weather conditions allowing the team to complete the programme for the day.
Alongside work with the MP4-21, the Team McLaren Mercedes test team has also been running an interim MP4-20 to continue Michelin development work. Gary Paffett was in the car on Monday, and covered 284km, with his running restricted to the afternoon as a result of the wet track. Pedro then switched to the MP4-20 for the final two days of the test, which saw the Spaniard complete 901km in total.
Since the MP4-21 had its shakedown on Monday 23rd January, it has completed 28 days of testing, covering around 8700km in total. The MP4-21s will now be freighted to Bahrain for the opening Grand Prix of the season on Sunday 12th March. The test team will return to the McLaren Technology Centre and will focus on the continued car build of further MP4-21s. The on-track test programme is currently scheduled to recommence on Wednesday 22nd March at the Paul Ricard circuit in France.
Kimi Räikkönen looked back on his test saying: "We have had a productive couple of days in Valencia this week, we had some good pace with the car today and I set the fastest time, but testing is very different to being on the race track. The work this week was pretty much the same as at previous tests, focusing on the set-up of the car with my race engineer Mark Slade, alongside some tyre selection with Michelin."
"Since we first ran the car, the test team has worked so hard on track so that we could put as much mileage on the MP4-21 and push the programme forward much as possible before the first race. I have completed 11 ½ test days in the MP4-21, and covered just over 3250km during these days. I am now looking forward to getting back behind the wheel in Bahrain next week and driving the car in a competitive environment to see where we really are performance wise."
Just under 10 days till the first F1 weekend of 2006 takes shape. I am filled with great anticipation and I wish all the very best of luck to Team McLaren Mercedes.
Go Kimi!!!
FUCK ISRAEL 