Michael Schumacher, Mercedes GP, Testing on GP2 Series car

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Michael Schumacher

Formula One returnee Michael Schumacher finished his three-day session in the GP2 Series development car by logging some decent mileage as conditions improved over the course of the day.

He ran 130 laps on the Jerez circuit in Spain on Thursday, the first 23 of which were on wet tires on a damp track in the morning. He then focused on 20-lap runs that presumably gave his neck a good workout. Schumacher recorded a best lap of 1 minute, 24.621 seconds; however, it is hard to draw any meaningful conclusions regarding his ultimate pace because the series does not race at Jerez and the main point of the test was to try new parts.

Intriguingly, Schumacher's Mercedes GP race engineer Andrew Shovlin--who won the title last year while working with Jenson Button--attended the test with a team colleague to get to know his new driver a little better.

"I could really drive a lot on this last day of testing and it worked out perfectly," Schumacher said. "I am very happy with the way testing went here. We worked well, times and consistency were well, we could do everything we had scheduled to do. I feel fit, I felt comfortable immediately back in the car--hey, let's go for it!"

GP2 Series organizer Bruno Michel said that the series gained a lot from Schumacher's input.

"This has been a fantastic opportunity for the GP2 Series and everyone involved in the competition," he commented. "Michael Schumacher's analysis and feedback was fantastic and the GP2 technical staff who has been working with him this week is positive that what has been learned from this development test will provide us with an even better car in 2011.

"We are very happy that Michael chose our car to get his sensations back at the wheel of a high-performance machine and that he stated that it was the closest thing to a current Formula One car."


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pic 1: Michael Schumacher GP2 Test at Jerez Spain 12 1 2010
pic 2: Michael Schumacher GP2 Test at Jerez Spain 12 1 2010

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pic 1: Michael Schumacher GP2 Test at Jerez Spain 12 1 2010
pic 2: Michael Schumacher GP2 Test at Jerez Spain 12 1 2010

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pic 1: Michael Schumacher GP2 Test at Jerez Spain 12 1 2010
pic 2: Michael Schumacher GP2 Test at Jerez Spain 12 1 2010