BRAWN GP COMPLETES FIRST FULL DAY OF TESTING IN BARCELONAThe Brawn GP Formula One Team’s 2009 car, the BGP 001, made its full track debut at the Circuit de Catalunya inBarcelona, Spain today following an initial shakedown at Silverstone, UK on 6 March.Taking to the track to participate in the group test session, the BGP 001 showed encouraging reliability and pace as theteam intensifies its preparations for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on 29 March. With onlyseven days of testing between now and the first race, the team’s test programme has been carefully planned to ensurea balance between reliability checks and improving the overall performance of the car.Driving responsibilities over the four-day test will be shared by the team’s race drivers Jenson Button and RubensBarrichello. After shaking down the car at Silverstone, Jenson had the opportunity to evaluate the car on a full GrandPrix circuit for the first time today. In addition to completing a reliability and set-up programme with the new chassis, heworked through new tyre evaluations using the Bridgestone Potenza slicks and completed a race start simulation.Jenson completed 82 laps over the course of the day and set the fourth fastest time overall. Team-mate Rubens willjoin the Brawn GP team in Barcelona tomorrow to take over the BGP 001 car from Jenson.JENSON BUTTON“It has been a good first day in the BGP 001 with our new team, Brawn GP. I’d like to start by thanking everyone at theteam for all the hard work that has contributed to getting us here today. We have enjoyed a positive opening day ofrunning at our first test and achieved a total of 82 laps, which we are all very pleased with. We did experience aproblem with the gearbox late in the day but we knew we might face some reliability issues in view of our lack oftesting. Fortunately, it’s a minor problem that is easily addressed. It’s early days yet but generally it has been a positivestart to our pre-season preparations.”RESULTS (All timings are unofficial)Pos Driver Team Time Laps1. Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 1:20.338 962. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:20.908 813. Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:20.937 1214. Jenson Button Brawn GP 1:21.140 825. Nelson Piquet Renault 1:21.662 1266. Sebastien Bourdais Toro Rosso 1:22.158 867. Mark Webber Red Bull 1:22.246 1178. Adrian Sutil Force India 1:22.452 1299. Kazuki Nakajima Williams 1:22.813 11110. Heikki Kovalainen McLaren 1:22.948 90
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BRAWN GP COMPLETES FIRST FULL DAY OF TESTING IN BARCELONAThe Brawn GP Formula One Team’s 2009 car, the BGP 001, made its full track debut at the Circuit de Catalunya inBarcelona, Spain today following an initial shakedown at Silverstone, UK on 6 March.Taking to the track to participate in the group test session, the BGP 001 showed encouraging reliability and pace as theteam intensifies its preparations for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on 29 March. With onlyseven days of testing between now and the first race, the team’s test programme has been carefully planned to ensurea balance between reliability checks and improving the overall performance of the car.Driving responsibilities over the four-day test will be shared by the team’s race drivers Jenson Button and RubensBarrichello. After shaking down the car at Silverstone, Jenson had the opportunity to evaluate the car on a full GrandPrix circuit for the first time today. In addition to completing a reliability and set-up programme with the new chassis, heworked through new tyre evaluations using the Bridgestone Potenza slicks and completed a race start simulation.Jenson completed 82 laps over the course of the day and set the fourth fastest time overall. Team-mate Rubens willjoin the Brawn GP team in Barcelona tomorrow to take over the BGP 001 car from Jenson.JENSON BUTTON“It has been a good first day in the BGP 001 with our new team, Brawn GP. I’d like to start by thanking everyone at theteam for all the hard work that has contributed to getting us here today. We have enjoyed a positive opening day ofrunning at our first test and achieved a total of 82 laps, which we are all very pleased with. We did experience aproblem with the gearbox late in the day but we knew we might face some reliability issues in view of our lack oftesting. Fortunately, it’s a minor problem that is easily addressed. It’s early days yet but generally it has been a positivestart to our pre-season preparations.”RESULTS (All timings are unofficial)Pos Driver Team Time Laps1. Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 1:20.338 962. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:20.908 813. Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:20.937 1214. Jenson Button Brawn GP 1:21.140 825. Nelson Piquet Renault 1:21.662 1266. Sebastien Bourdais Toro Rosso 1:22.158 867. Mark Webber Red Bull 1:22.246 1178. Adrian Sutil Force India 1:22.452 1299. Kazuki Nakajima Williams 1:22.813 11110. Heikki Kovalainen McLaren 1:22.948 90