Caterham were left satisfied with their day's testing after Vitaly Petrov completed 69 laps at the Circuit de Catalunya.
Russian gets first chance behind the wheel since joining the team
Caterham were left satisfied with their day's testing after Vitaly Petrov completed 69 laps at the Circuit de Catalunya.
The day was used to allow the Russian to familiarise himself with the CT01 after he joined the team on Friday, replacing Jarno Trulli.
The 27-year-old was happy with how his return to the car went following his split from Lotus F1, then called Renault, last season.
Petrov said: "I think that was a pretty positive day. 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.
"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.
Driving style
"One thing I have noticed is that this car behaves a little differently from my previous experience and 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."
Chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne was happy with the progress the Russian made during the day and expects things to improve as he gets more familiar with his new surroundings.
Gascoyne said: "A very reasonable first day with Vitaly in the car. We spent some time this morning getting him acclimatised, focusing particularly on the brakes, but he has settled in well and did exactly what we asked of him today.
"We have a few points to work on tonight, one of those being to understand how to give him a setup he feels most comfortable with, so tomorrow we expect to be able to continue to progress when he's back on track for the second day."
