By Phil Huff
March 9 2009

The Brawn GP Formula One Team’s 2009 car, the BGP 001, made its full track debut at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain today following an initial shakedown at Silverstone on Friday.

Taking to the track to participate in the group test session, the BGP 001 showed encouraging reliability and pace as the team intensifies its preparations for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on 29th March.

With only seven days of testing between now and the first race, the team’s test programme has been carefully planned to ensure a 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 Rubens Barrichello. After shaking down the car at Silverstone, Button had the opportunity to evaluate the car on a full Grand Prix circuit for the first time today.

In addition to completing a reliability and set-up programme with the new chassis, he worked through new tyre evaluations using the Bridgestone Potenza slicks and completed a race start simulation.

"It has been a good first day in the BGP 001 with our new team, Brawn GP," Button stated.

"I'd like to start by thanking everyone at the team for all the hard work that has contributed to getting us here today. We have enjoyed a positive opening day of running at our first test and achieved a total of 82 laps, which we are all very pleased with.

"We did experience a problem with the gearbox late in the day but we knew we might face some reliability issues in view of our lack of testing," the British veteran continued. "Fortunately, it’s a minor problem that is easily addressed. It’s early days yet but generally it has been a positive start to our pre-season preparations."

Button completed 82 laps over the course of the day and set the fourth fastest time overall, eight-tenths off Nick Heidfeld who set the pace today for BMW Sauber.

Team-mate Rubens Barrichello will join the Brawn GP team in Barcelona tomorrow.

Pos	Driver	Car	Engine	Time	Laps
01	Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	BMW	1:20.339	92
02	Raikkonen	Ferrari	Ferrari	1:20.908	80
03	Trulli	Toyota	Toyota	1:20.937	118
04	Button	Brawn	Mercedes	1:21.140	82
05	Piquet	Renault	Renault	1:21.662	124
06	Bourdais	Toro Rosso	Ferrari	1:22.158	96
07	Webber	Red Bull	Renault	1:22.246	115
08	Sutil	Force India	Mercedes	1:22.452	127
09	Nakajima	Williams	Toyota	1:22.813	111
10	Kovalainen	McLaren	Mercedes	1:22.948	87