Adrian concludes test

By Karl King
January 17 2008

Adrian Sutil concluded Force India's test in Jerez today on a day with intermittent rain, disrupting the team's progress. The young German was evaluating the 2008 standard electronic control unit and a range of set-up options and also conducted several fuel cell tests. He managed to complete 71 laps and set a best time of 1m21.705 which was good enough for tenth on the timesheets.

Drivers with slower times were Webber and Coulthard who ended up 11th and 12th respectively on the day they launched their new challenger, Hulkenburg was 13th for Williams and STR's Vettel rounded off the timesheets with a time over three seconds off that of Sutil's.

The fastest man on the day was Timo Glock posting a time exactly three tenths faster than Hamilton's - a 1m19.799, the only driver to break into the 1m19s on the day.

'With the rain it was not the best conditions at the start but at least this morning we did a lot of running in the wet, which was helpful as we tried some different settings', Adrian said. 'We still have quite a lot of work to do, but in the end I was quite happy, particularly as towards the mid afternoon we could do some dry running, which I needed as it's a new circuit for me - I had just a few laps three or four years ago in Formula 3! It's not that difficult to learn but there are still some tricky sections and even when it dried there were some damp parts, but I was happy to be back in the car.'

'Obviously a fairly disruptive day for Adrian and the team due to the weather', Mike Gascoyne added. 'The rain showers meant that the conditions on the track were fairly changeable until the last hour or so when we were able to do some dry running, but nevertheless it's good for Adrian to get back in the car after a reasonably long lay off over the Christmas period. Despite the stoppages over the three days, it was still a productive test with our new driving combination.'

The team will travel to Valencia from 22 - 24 January. Tonio will drive on day one, followed by Adrian on the second and Giancarlo on the final day.