Force India finish sixth quickest in test race

Jerez (Spain), Mar 2 (PTI) With a McLaren-Mercedes engine
in place, Force India started the new season clocking the
sixth quickest time among eight drivers after managing to
complete just 31 laps on the full test day at the Jerez de la
Frontera circuit here.

Force India driver Giancarlo Fisichella gave the new
VJM02 its initial laps, recording a promising 1:21.584 timing
in the full test day of the 2009 season Sunday.

Although the machine experienced some downtime during the
initial runs because of the fuel system, Fisichella still
managed to complete 31 laps and said the car was showing signs
of consistency and stability.

"It is a bit frustrating as we could only do 31 laps
Monday, especially as it is very important to try and get as
many as possible as we are already late compared to the other
teams," said Fisichella.

"I'm am however quite surprised and happy about what I
felt with the behaviour of the car today. It's very promising
and I felt much more consistency, even under braking, and more
stability in the high speed corners.

"We need to improve the traction a bit and also the
over-steering after a few laps, but this is a problem others
have had as well. The lap time is good and I am quite pleased
as we did it with one set of new tyres and I know I can do
much better than this.

"We are not that far away from the other people so I am
looking forward to tomorrow and another day with more laps
where we can try to improve the car a little bit and
concentrate on reliability," the Italian added.

Force India is facing a time crunch to go for the
complete systems check and accumulate the maximum possible
amount of data for its new VJMO2.

"Given the time-frame we've had, to get laps in here is a
major achievement," said technical director James Key.

"It was certainly good to be running today for the first
time at a test following our shakedown last week. The rain
didn't come today as much as expected so we got more time than
we thought, although it was difficult to get a clear run with
the numerous red flags.

"We also had one simple issue that halted our running, a
fuel system problem. We don't feel it is fundamental, we just
need to get to the bottom of fixing it.

Fisichella will continue his testing today, while
teammate Adrian Sutil will take the wheels tomorrow.