Giancarlo Fisichella outshone the likes of Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton to record yet another impressive timing that placed him second fastest in the second day's testing at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona.
'Good decision to join Force India'
Behind the wheels of the VJM01, Fisichella completed 79 laps and his best of 1min 19.721s remained the benchmark for major part of the day in the nine-man field before Honda's Rubens Barrichello (1 min 18.928s) raised the bar.
Next on the list was Ferrari's Bahrain Grand Prix winner Massa, followed by Red Bull's David Coulthard, McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso of Renault, Nico Rosberg of Williams, Toyota's Timo Glock and BMW-Sauber's Nick Heidfeld.
Though Fisichella posted his best time on 2009 'slick' Bridgestone tyre option, he proved quick on the grooved rubber too and managed a more representative time of 1m 20.7s to demonstrate the Silverstone-based outfit's rapid progress.
This was a marked improvement from the team's previous fastest lap round in Barcelona this year -- a 1 min 22.233, was set by Giancarlo in February. The same circuit will host the fourth Grand Prix of the season on April 27 and the strong show here would boost the Vijay Mallya-owned team's morale.
Quite at home behind the wheel of the VJM01, Fisichella said, "The car went much better this time out than the last time we tested in Barcelona, which you can see in the considerable improvement in our lap times. This is largely due to the new parts we have introduced since the start of the season and the last time we were here.
"I tested the new 2009 slick tyres here today -- which was the reason for my fastest lap -- but we were also much quicker on 2008 grooved rubber too. The best lap we did here in February was a 1min 22.3 and now we are at 1min 20.7, we're really moving forward," said the Italian.
More from rediff