Vitaly Petrov got his first taste of the Caterham CT01 at Montmeló on Wednesday after taking over testing duty from team-mate Heikki Kovalainen. Petrov declared himself positive despite issues in the morning with seating position due to the Russian's height.
"I think that was a pretty positive day," commented the man from Vyborg. "We completed 69 laps and got through most of what we had planned.
"This morning we had a couple of issues with the seating position and the brakes, but you expect that from a new car and they were little things that we were able to fix quickly. In the afternoon we put in a few more long runs and that'll give us a lot of data to work on tonight and I think tomorrow it will be more of the same."
The Russian recently ousted veteran Jarno Trulli from the team and hadn't driven since the Brazilian Grand Prix back in November, where he was part of the Lotus F1 outfit. He spoke about getting used to the new car and told how he's kept in shape over the winter.
"Physically I feel really good. It's obviously been a while since I've been in a car, but I've kept up my fitness levels and I enjoyed myself on track, so it's a good first day back.
"One thing I have noticed is that this car behaves a little differently from my previous experience," he continued. "I think I may have to adjust my driving style to get the best out of it - I've been quite aggressive before, but I think this car responds better to smoother inputs, so that's something I can work on, and work with the engineers on. Let's see what we can come up with for tomorrow."
Petrov will be back behind the wheel on Thursday before Kovalainen takes the wheel again for the final day on Friday.
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| Pos. | Driver | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  N. Hulkenberg | 01:22.608 | 112 |
| 2. | S. Perez | 01:22.648 | 85 |
| 3. | S. Vettel | 01:22.891 | 104 |
| 4. | F. Alonso | 01:23.180 | 87 |
| 5. | D. Ricciardo | 01:23.639 | 50 |
| 6. | L. Hamilton | 01:23.806 | 121 |
| 7. | N. Rosberg | 01:24.555 | 82 |
| 8. | V. Bottas | 01:25.738 | 117 |
| 9. | V. Petrov | 01:26.605 | 69 |
| 10. | C. Pic | 01:27.343 | 109 |
| Full results | |||
| Vitaly Petrov | |||
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| More Vitaly Petrov photos | |||
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