Formula One news

Liuzzi kicks off Force India test

Tonio Liuzzi completed his first official day of duty for the Force India Formula One Team today as he opened the team's three-day test at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit in southern Spain.

After a wet start to the day, Force India - again running in its interim burgundy and white colour scheme - pushed on with its programme of getting to grips with the new 2008 electronic package. Tonio completed 47 laps, the small number a knock-on effect of the numerous red flag periods that punctuated the day. He was also hampered by minor hydraulic issues in the morning and the afternoon's running, which again limited the mileage the team could achieve. His best lap was a 1:23.035, set in the afternoon. 

"We have improved from the last test we did here and the car seemed to respond better than last time, so that was already better," said Liuzzi. "It was quite a difficult day though as we had a few mechanical problems and we had to wait in the garage for a while, so we didn't put in too many laps, but the few laps we did I think were pretty positive. It was just unfortunate that the issues stopped us doing some more, but it is a three day test and we can look forward to some more development. We are going in the right direction and still have a lot of work to do."

Giancarlo Fisichella will take over from Tonio for tomorrow's running, with Adrian Sutil getting behind the wheel for the final day of testing on Wednesday.

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