Adrian Sutil (GER) Force India F1 VJM03

The Force India Formula One Team has finished the VJM03′s maiden test in Jerez on a positive note, with Adrian Sutil posting the second quickest time of the day, a 1:20.180 behind McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton.

Conditions today remained dry from mid morning, allowing the team to run through systems checks, set-up evaluation and tyre comparisons. Adrian completed 84 laps of the Spanish track to bring the total test mileage to more than 1,200km.

Testing resumes next week, again at Jerez, from 17 – 20 February. New test and reserve driver Paul di Resta will get his first outing in the VJM03 on 17 February before Adrian and Tonio take over for the remainder of the test.

Adrian Sutil

In the end we did some really good runs, concentraing mainly on getting as much experience as we could with the new tyres. Set-up wise, we were pretty good already and the car balance is not so far away. We also tried a couple of longer runs and saving the tyres seems to be the key point as we could set some quick times on the early laps but then the tyres dropped off towards the end of the runs. We weren’t going for a time, just trying to get as much information as possible at this stage to feed back into the programme for next week.

Dominic Harlow, chief race engineer

We completed the final day of the test with a greater mileage than the previous days despite some poor weather to begin with and a planned period of downtime, which is positive. Overall our objectives today were completed, meaning some mechanical and bodywork test items and tyre comparisons. It’s been a good first test with the VJM3 confirming the base characteristics of the car and the most prominent effects of the regulation changes for 2010.