The six-week break in race activity has been used by constructors to continue development work on their cars. In particular, Honda and LADA were very active in trying to close the gap with the top.
The Castrol Honda Team performed a four-day test at Valencia last week, using a new Civic chassis (the sixth built) which is going to be the test car from now on.
The team tested a number of components, with some chassis and aerodynamic improvements being already implemented on race cars this weekend.
The team also tested new engine developments that are due to be introduced very soon.
After he placed third in today’s test session, only 0.089 seconds behind López, Tarquini said:
“It’s nice to see the gap reduced, this proved that the little improvements introduced after the Valencia test are delivering. Tiago had a more conventional configuration, we did this to compare results, and those point to the same direction. We now have a good basis to start from.”