Adrian Sutil and Robert Doornbos continued the Force India Formula One Team's strong testing form on the first day of tests at the Soume Yemick circuit in France.
The team was able to complete some set-up work, tyre comparison and also evaluate some test items, including the 'shark's fin' engine cover used from the mid-point of last year.
A driveshaft issue at the end of the morning led to some downtime, however progress resumed in the afternoon with Sutil completing short and mid-length runs.
Adrian Sutil:"I think today was a good day. It was important to get into the car again and to get confident. The car was okay; there is definitely potential, and we were able to do more mileage and find some reliability in the afternoon."
"In the morning we had a little problem but we could fix it over lunch and start to do our programme. The tyres dominate a lot and the different compounds react differently: you have to find a good set up and get them to work and that is where we are concentrated now.
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"We had some instability on the rear and oversteer, but we will see tomorrow. We are at least more reliable and can try and get some real mileage on the car now."
Sutil finished the day in 13th position, just behind test driver Doornbos.
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