Day 1 Paul Ricard

By Renault F1
May 17 2006

In the sunny climes of the south of France, the Renault F1 Team today began a three day testing programme at Paul Ricard circuit, with Fernando Alonso and Heikki Kovalainen running in the R26 this week.

Day 1 of three at Paul Ricard for the Renault F1 Team.


With the track in “Monaco” configuration, the Renault drivers naturally worked on preparations for the Monaco GP.

After a few set up changes this morning, Fernando Alonso focused on tyre testing during the afternoon to finalize the tyre selection for the next race.

Heikki Kovalainen today ran with the brand new R26-06 chassis, in which he initially conducted basic systems checks. He then began his development programme which was mainly composed of general tyre testing.

At the end of the day, Fernando Alonso had set the fastest laptime in 1’05.686, while his teammate completed a mammoth total of 174 laps on his way to the fourth-fastest laptime of the session in 1’05.889.

Christian Silk, Chief Test Engineer: “Our first day was very positive: we were able to follow our programme without any problem and we identified some interesting solutions. We worked on the preparation for Monaco and especially on the tyre testing. We covered a lot of laps, we were quick and we made good progress on both cars. It was a good day of testing.”


1 F. Alonso Renault 01:05.686 143
2 F. Massa Ferrari 01:05.707 127
3 J. Trulli Toyota 01:05.752 117
4 H. Kovalainen Renault 01:05.889 174
5 K. Räikkönen McLaren 01:05.996 68
6 JP. Montoya McLaren 01:06.177 103
7 N. Heidfeld BMW 01:06.466 100
8 R. Kubica BMW 01:06.586 123
9 S. Speed Scuderia Toro Rosso 01:06.725 150
10 R. Schumacher Toyota 01:07.09 104
11 C. Klien Red Bull 01:07.016 65
12 R. Doornbos Red Bull 01:07.760 83