Paul Ricard - Day 3

By Renault F1
May 19 2006

Final day of testing at Paul Ricard. After Monaco, we were today on Montreal configuration. A 5,216 km-long track, the Mistral straight line, la “Verrerie”… The Renault drivers have enjoyed the real Castellet layout today.

Once again, it’s been a busy day, especially for Heikki who has covered 121 laps. He set the second-fastest laptime at the end of the session. The Finn remained focused on the development of the Michelin tyres for the next Canadian Grand Prix.

Fernando Alonso ran until midday and completed his programme. In fact, the team tried to preserve him for the next race in Monaco but also because the Spaniard will be in Seville this weekend for the Renault F1 Roadshow where lots of fans are expected.

It’s been a very positive final day as confirmed Christian Silk at the end of the session: “we only had one day of testing on Montreal configuration but the results are good and we recorded useful data to continue working on the preparation of the Canadian GP. Once again, we can be pleased by the excellent reliability of our engine on this track which is really demanding”.


1 J. Villeneuve BMW 01:25.379 125
2 H. Kovalainen Renault 01:25.736 121
3 P. de la Rosa McLaren 01:25.834 120
4 R. Kubica BMW 01:25.931 97
5 F. Alonso Renault 01:26.033 63
6 D. Coulthard Red Bull 01:26.172 91
7 R. Zonta Toyota 01:26.261 101
8 G. Paffett McLaren 01:26.443 99
9 R. Doornbos Red Bull 01:26.498 44
10 N. Jani Scuderia Toro Rosso 01:26.668 103
11 O. Panis Toyota 01:27.037 82
12 F. Massa Ferrari 00:00.00 3