Formula One news

Minor problems at Force India's first day of testing

The Force India F1 team began its preparations for its first season in Formula 1 on Monday at Jerez. Tonio Liuzzi completed his first official day of duty for the team as the Italian worked through his programme in the South of 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. Tonio 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.

Vitantonio Liuzzi said about his day of testing: "'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. 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 Liuzzi on Tuesday, with Adrian Sutil getting behind the wheel for the final day of testing on Wednesday.

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