VJM04 testing continues in Barcelona

Barcelona, Feb 20 (PTI) Force India''s new signing Paul diResta continued his preparation for his debut season inFormula One with another day of testing in the VJM04, wherethe Scottish driver put the car through its paces.

The Formula One team conducted the third test of theVJM04 on the second day here yesterday, where the 24-year-oldPaul completed 80 laps of the Circuit de Catalunya, split overa variety of run lengths and set-ups.

Paul also tested different tyre compounds over longerruns and, with only one period of downtime, largely completedhis programme. He posted the ninth quickest time.

The programme focussed on putting more miles on the carto gather more information on performance and balance. ForceIndia''s another driver Adrian Sutil will take over from Paulfor the remaining two days.

"Today was a definite improvement over yesterday''srunning with a lot more laps under our belt. We ran through alot of set-ups with the different tyre compounds and the carfelt more balanced, which showed in a generally better laptime.

"Apart from the problem with the throttle sensor in theafternoon everything went pretty much to plan and we''ve got alot of information to feed into Adrian''s programme tomorrowand for the rest of the test," said Paul.

Dominic Harlow, circuit engineering director, said Paulconcentrated on long run comparison of the tyres with somefurther aero, brake material and set-up tests.

"A sensor problem later in the afternoon resulted in theonly real down time of the day. It was a reliability issue,but in testing and we are confident it is understood and canbe addressed. Adrian takes over the car tomorrow and willcontinue with the tyre programme," he said.