Van der Garde crash curtails test

Giedo van der Garde brought an early end to the in-season test at Silverstone by crashing heavily in the final half an hour on Wednesday.

The Sauber reserve driver was on his final run of the day on soft tyres when he ran wide at Copse, lost control and spun the car through 180 degrees, hitting the barrier at high speed. The incident caused damage to the barrier which meant the session could not restart and van der Garde admitted it was his error which caused a big impact.

"In the afternoon, during my last outing on the soft tyres, I unfortunately lost the rear of the car and went into the barrier on my second lap when I was pushing," van der Garde said. "It was a hard crash, but luckily I am fine."

Test engineer Paul Russell said Sauber had still had a productive day before the accident occurred, ensuring the team has a lot of data.

"In the morning we worked on aerodynamic measurements and continued with the car development programme in order to improve its performance," Russell said. "We were able to finish our measurements, checked the new aero parts and continued our regular set-up work. In the afternoon we did set-up work for the car's long term development."