Sakon Yamamoto got his go in the Spyker
F1 team's new B-spec car on Thursday, as the Silverstone-based outfit racked up more miles on its second and final test day at the Autodromo di Monza.
Despite torrential rain and thunderstorms, which hit the circuit in the morning, Yamamoto managed 72 laps in total, his best effort a 1 minute 26.384 seconds, which left him tenth on the times. He was focusing on long runs, tyre comparisons and working on set-ups for the forthcoming Italian Grand Prix, which will take place at Monza next weekend.
Speaking following his maiden run in the car, the Japanese driver noted that while it is difficult compare the A and B spec cars, he does believe it is an improvement: “Today was a strange day as it was torrential rain and thunder in the morning and we couldn't do any running at all,” he explained.
“Obviously it's a bit disappointing as we wanted to put more mileage on the car, but when the rain stopped we were able to do some good longer runs. Considering how much it rained, we did do quite a lot of laps and I was happy with the progress we made.
“It's difficult to compare the A and B-spec cars as the tracks are so different - Istanbul is very high downforce, while Monza is very low - but the car felt easier to drive. Overall, it was good preparation for next week and we got some good settings for the race.”
Spyker's chief race and test engineer, Dominic Harlow meanwhile was content with the two-day programme and in total the outfit managed over 850 kilometres with the new machine, just short of three race distances.
“A huge thunderstorm greeted the team this morning as we arrived at the circuit and it rained almost continuously until 13:00 when the skies began to clear and the track slowly dried,” he added.
“Despite this weather limiting running to the afternoon session only, a useful 72 laps were completed with Sakon and the team working incredibly hard to complete this impressive total.
