Veteran Italian Giancarlo Fisichella clocked in a string of competitive times to finish 11th quickest of the 16 drivers as Force India completed its penultimate winter test here in style.

After taking over from German team-mate Adrian Sutil, the Italian underlined the continuing progress of the team and in better conditions recorded a best of 1 min 20.669 as he worked through a programme of gearbox, electronic development and set-up.

The Formula One team, part-owned by Vijay Mallya, could not have asked for a better day and the outfit completed just under 400km, bringing the overall test mileage to over 1,200km.

“Today was a good day. We were able to put in a lot of laps without any major problems and I felt more comfortable in the car,” an elated Fisichella said on Thursday.

“We worked through a programme of set-up and some development items and even with a reasonable fuel load we were still able to put in some competitive times,” he added.

The team’s next test will be in Barcelona from February 25 - 27 when the VJM01, to race in Melbourne, will hit the track for the first time. “I’m looking forward to the next test,” he said.