As Jeremy McWilliams made his return to the race track today in Qatar, Ilmor GP enjoyed a better day at the Middle Eastern circuit, clocking up a total of 68 laps - 50 for Andrew Pitt and 18 for McWilliams - as the new team joined all its 2007 rivals at the 5.38km track.
After struggling at the recent Sepang test, Pitt focussed heavily on electronics whilst McWilliams readjusted himself back onto the bike after his two month, injury induced, absence.
"I feel good but I feel like my performance could definitely have been better," said a limping Mc
Williams, who was unsurprisingly slowest of all. "It was great to be back out on the bike though, it felt fantastic. As I've said before there is an enormous amount of work ahead of us but I'm confident that we're making real progress. The circuit here is good, it's a technical track and physically demanding but when you're on form, it's great fun to ride."
"We're certainly making progress, I feel much happier than I did in Sepang last week," added Pitt, who was nevertheless left second to last and almost five-seconds from the top. "I spent most of today working with the electronics team and we're really starting to chip away at the teething problems we have been experiencing. I'm looking forward to doing more over the next couple of days."
That view of heading in the right direction was reinforced by team manager Mike Janes and managing director Steve Miller - who confessed he was concerned after Sepang - but it will be the rate of Ilmor's progress relative to the competition that matters most with the new season less than a month away.
"I'm pleased, we made some progress today and we're inching heading in the right direction, albeit a bit slower than we would like," admitted Janes. "The team worked tremendously hard to get the bikes as ready as possible after Sepang, where we amassed analysed a lot of data acquired there, and I think this, coupled with the strong feedback that we're now getting from both riders has helped us today. Let's see what we can make of the next two days."
