F1: Barcelona to host next Pirelli tire test

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From GMM

Pirelli will continue its 2011 tire development programme in Spain later in October.

The Italian marque was back on track this week, where former test driver Nick Heidfeld's Pirelli replacement Pedro de la Rosa got to grips with the 2009 Toyota at the Valencia circuit.

The track was artificially watered for the two-day session, with a light covering to check the performance of the new intermediate tires and then a denser covering to try out the full wet rubber.

Driving last year's Toyota TF109, De la Rosa covered just over 650 kilometres, having started his programme on slick tires in order to establish a benchmark time.

"As we were running our intermediate and wet tires for the very first time, effectively our programme was starting from scratch once more,” explained Pirelli's motorsport director Paul Hembery.

The next tyre test will be at Barcelona at the end of the month.

"So far our schedule is going exactly to plan, and we look forward to continuing our work at what is a very exciting time for us during the next test sessions as well as back at base in Milan," said Hembery.