Giedo van der Garde took to the circuit in the newly renamed Caterham for the first time today. Completing 74 laps over the course of the test's third day, he took the time adapting his style and getting used to the feeling of the car.
"That was a good day. I'm happy because I put in a lot of time in the car and that was the first time I've been on track since Monza last year, so I had to spend a bit of time this morning getting back into the groove, but that came pretty quickly and then we got down to work," van der Garde said. "I'm very pleased because by the end of the day I was getting starting to get used to all the new things about F1 - there's a lot to learn but I know what I need to focus on so next time I'm in the car I'll definitely be able to get on the pace more quickly.
"There are a couple of real areas that I know I can work on - the first being the brakes. I'm used to a stiffer pedal on the GP2 car so I had to adapt my style a bit to get used to the F1 car, but that came quite early. The other area is getting the most out of the new tyres. The quickest lap time is pretty much straight out of the box and that means being on it as soon as you leave the pits."
Speaking about two driver operated devices that were so far un-tested by van der Garde, he said: "We used both DRS and KERS today and I felt pretty comfortable with both. DRS started to come naturally by the end of the day and with KERS there's more to come. Jarno (Trulli) will be working on maximising that tomorrow so I think the team will have more for me to work through on that system next time I'm in the car.
"Basically I enjoyed myself today. The team has been great with me - the engineers and the mechanics have all been working really hard to help me acclimatise, so thanks to them for today and now I'm looking forward to my next run."
Jarno Trulli will be in the hot-seat for the final day of testing tomorrow, after two days with Heikki Kovalainen and one with van der Garde.
Series
Formula 1
Personalities
Giedo van der Garde
Teams
Caterham
Other
DTM Tickets (best price guarantee!) at Sportstadium.com
| Pos. | Driver | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  N. Rosberg | 01:17.613 | 118 |
| 2. | R. Grosjean | 01:18.419 | 117 |
| 3. | S. Vettel | 01:19.297 | 96 |
| 4. | L. Hamilton | 01:19.464 | 80 |
| 5. | J. Vergne | 01:19.734 | 79 |
| 6. | S. Perez | 01:19.770 | 48 |
| 7. | F. Alonso | 01:20.412 | 65 |
| 8. | B. Senna | 01:21.293 | 125 |
| 9. | G. van der Garde | 01:23.324 | 74 |
| 10. | J. Bianchi | 00:00.000 | 2 |
| Full results | |||
| Giedo van der Garde | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  |
| More Giedo van der Garde photos | |||
English
Nederlands
Español
Italiano
