Good run by Fisichella with new Force India engine

Veteran Giancarlo Fisichella of Force India gave the new VJM02 a good run with a 97-lap programme on the penultimate day of the four-day Formula One test session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona.

Veteran Giancarlo Fisichella of Force India gave the new VJM02 a good run with a 97-lap programme on the penultimate day of the four-day Formula One test session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona.

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Fisichella posted a best lap of one minute, 21.545 seconds to go quicker on Wednesday than team-mate Adrian Sutil who had a 1:21.834 on Tuesday.

Commenting on his session, Fisichella said: "We had some good reliability again on Thursday and could go through the programme as planned. We did a lot of set up work, which we needed to do after the limited running in Jerez.

"I feel that the mechanical grip is good so we need to concentrate on the aero package now. I'm looking forward to the race simulation tomorrow where we can look at the performance over a longer run."

Interestingly, Force India, powered by McLaren gearbox and Mercedes engine, was quicker than the British team whose world champion Lewis Hamilton's fastest lap was a 1:21.657 and finished at the bottom of the time charts.

Hamilton drove 86 laps, but his run was marred by a crash into the tyre barrier as he lost the car on the exit of the second corner.

Fortunately, the damage was not extensive as the team replaced the broken front wing endplate and nose struts.

Meanwhile, Jenson Button, whose Formula One career was revived following the buyout of Honda by Ross Brawn, clocked the day's fastest time of 1:19.127 during an extended run of 130 laps in the Brawn GP car.

Button topped Ferrari's Felipe Massa (1:20.168) and BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica (1:20.217).