Formula One news

Mechanical problems shortens Spyker's day

Christijan Albers took over driving duties today for the Spyker Formula One Team's third and final day of testing at the Circuit de Catalunya. In today's vastly improved weather conditions, Christijan completed 66 laps as the team focussed on evaluating tyres and suspension plus preparing set-ups for next week's Spanish Grand Prix.

After a productive morning in which Christijan completed several longer runs, the team's running was shortened following a mechanical problem. With the team returning to base tonight rather than staying for a fourth day, the team called a halt to the test.

Christijan Albers said: "We started out quite well this morning. We were working on some race set ups and I was quite happy as we improved the car's handling. I did a lot of laps and I tried to push really hard before trying some new tyres in the afternoon, but then unfortunately we had a failure. It's a shame as it took our afternoon away, but I think we can be pleased with today - overall it was a good day's work."

Mike Gascoyne, Spyker's chief technical officer, said about today's job: "We had a fairly useful day today with Christijan. We made some improvements to the car's handling with some different damper settings and the car was fairly consistent in the longer runs, so we can be confident of a better performance in the race next week. We stopped running early when we discovered a small problem with the rear of the car, but it's not something that will affect us next time out in Barcelona. Overall it was a useful test and we can now look forward to the Grand Prix."

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