The Brawn team made its Formula One testing debut on Monday, with Jenson Button setting the fourth-fastest time at the Circuit de Catalunya.
It marked the team’s first full test since Ross Brawn announced last week he bought out the former Honda team, clearing the way for a full lineup of 20 cars at the Australian Grand Prix this month.
Button showed the new BGP 001 car will be competitive, clocking a best time of one minute 21.140 seconds after 82 laps. BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld was fastest in 1:20.338, with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen and Toyota’s Jarno Trulli also topping the Brawn car.
“We have enjoyed a positive opening day of running at our first test,” Button said. “We did experience a problem with the gearbox late in the day but we knew we might face some reliability issues in view of our lack of testing. … It’s early days yet, but generally it has been a positive start to our pre-season preparations.”
Brawn took over the former Honda F1 team after the Japanese auto manufacturer pulled out of the sport in December because of the high cost of competition.
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