Giancarlo Fisichella had his first official day behind Force India wheels, completing 76 laps, more than a full race distance, on the second day of testing at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit in Spain.

The 35-year-old Italian continued the team’s programme of set-up work and integrating the 2008 standard electronic control unit. Fisichella’s best lap time at Tuesday’s testing was 1:20.764. Although the track was damp in the morning, with far fewer red flags than on Monday, the team was able to make up for limited running and complete the greater part of its programme. Adrian Sutil will take over for the third and final day of the test for the Vijay Mallya co-owned team on Wednesday.

“Not too bad today. The circuit was damp in the morning, but by mid-day it was getting better. We did most of the programme, but unfortunately we had some minor mechanical issues,” Fisichella said.

“At the end, with the new tyres there was a possibility to have a faster time, but unfortunately there was traffic and then I made a mistake, but it’s quite encouraging. I think we can improve quite a lot as we are going in the right direction,” he added.

Force India chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne termedtesting a productive one for the team.