Montoya encouraged with the new McLaren
Juan Pablo Montoya had his first run in the Team McLaren Mercedes MP4-21 at today`s test in Barcelona, following its shakedown at the Circuit de Catalunya yesterday. Juan Pablo covered approximately 410kms over 87 laps in the MP4-21.
The Colombian took to the track for the first time at 09:00 for an installation lap and began his longer runs shortly after 10am, having allowed the track to warm up slightly. The cold weather of yesterday had continued, with the track only reaching 5 degrees Celsius by 12noon local time.

Montoya`s quickest time of the day was a 1:17.636s, which was the third fastest time of the day. He put in a number of long runs, including a 21 lap stint shortly before lunchtime, followed by 16 and 19 lap runs in the afternoon.

"It was great to get my hands on the MP4-21 today in Barcelona," said Montoya. "Actually I was at the shakedown yesterday for a few hours. Having spent some time at the McLaren Technology Centre recently I have seen the MP4-21 being built and I couldn`t wait until today to see the car on track."

"We have had an encouraging day, it feels very similar to last year`s car but a little bit better, but it is very early stages," Montoya continued. "Our focus today was similar to yesterday with Pedro, just continuing to work through all the systems checks. We were able to cover over 400 kilometres, and continue getting valuable data for the team to work on."

Test driver Gary Paffett continued his programme of Michelin tyre work in the interim MP4-20. Paffett completed 50 laps of the Spanish track, covering over 230kms prior to an accident shortly before 14:00, which was as a result of the cold, low grip track. Paffett was uninjured, however his MP4-20 was badly damaged and the test team pushed hard during the afternoon to get him back out on track for the final 15 minutes of the session.

This time allowed Paffett to take his total kilometres for the day to 265. The Englishman`s fastest time of 1:17.797s put him in fourth position on the timesheets.

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