By Renault F1
September 20 2006

The Renault F1 Team today continued its testing programme at Silverstone in preparation for the final three races of the season. Heikki Kovalainen continued his tyre development work, narrowing down the tyre selection for the forthcoming Japanese Grand Prix. Heikki completed a trouble-free day, running 119 laps and setting the second-fastest time in 1:19.700.

Nelsinho Piquet's second day with the Renault F1 Team saw him continue his acclimatization to the team and the R26. Although his morning endurance work was delayed by mechanical problems, he conducted tyre and set-up development this afternoon as he learned more about the car, and began to fine-tune its handling. He finished the day with an impressive fastest time of 1:19.565, and 73 laps completed.

Heikki Kovalainen
"We had a very good day, focused on the tyre testing and making the right selection for Suzuka. The tyres were quick on the first lap and consistent on the longer runs we did this morning. We had good reliability, doing more than two race distances, so it was a very positive day."

Nelsinho Piquet
"This was another day of learning and improving for me. The more laps I do, the better things are getting and I feel like I am improving with every run.
We did a good variety of long runs and shorter runs today, and the car felt really good as we started making some set-up changes. I am looking forward to another strong day tomorrow."

Christian Silk, Chief Test Engineer
"The team had another good day of testing, completing nearly 200 laps of a demanding circuit such as Silverstone, in spite of some delays this morning. Heikki continued working on the Suzuka tyres with Michelin, and the results are very encouraging. As for Nelson, he did some endurance running this morning before running a tyre and set-up programme in the afternoon, which allowed him to tune the car and start giving us some feedback. His performance was encouraging and, all in all, it has been a positive day for the team."

1. N. Piquet - Renault R26 - 1'19"565 - 73 laps
2. H. Kovalainen - Renault R26 - 1'19"700 (+0"135) - 119 laps
3. P. de la Rosa - McLaren Mercedes MP4/21 - 1'19"921 (+0"356) - 110 laps
4. F. Montagny - Toyota TF106B - 1'20"616 (+1"051) - 87 laps
5. A. Wurz - Williams Cosworth FW28 - 1'20"822 (+1"257) - 68 laps
6. L. Hamilton - McLaren Mercedes MP4/21 - 1'20"864 (+1"299) - 64 laps
7. R. Schumacher - Toyota TF106B - 1'21"130 (+1"565) - 55 laps
8. T. Sato - Super Aguri Honda SA06 - 1'21"981 (+2"416) - 39 laps
9. A. Prémat – Spyker MF1 Toyota M16 - 1'23"206 (+3"641) - 84 laps
10. N. Karthikeyan - Williams Toyota FW28 - 1'24"031 (+4"466) - 39 laps
11. S. Yamamoto - Super Aguri Honda SA06 - 1'24"839 (+5"274) - 26 laps
12. R. Quintarelli – Spyker MF1 Toyota M16 - 1'36"638 (+17"073) - 7 laps