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Barcelona In-Season Test: Celis treads carefully with Force India developments

Alfonso Celis Jr says he's taken a gentle approach to get back up to speed in the Force India during the first in-season F1 test of the year.

The Mexican development driver debuted the VJM09 at Circuit de Catalunya during the first winter pre-season test in February and returned to action on the first day of the in-season test.

Celis Jr spent the majority of the day banking consistent laps for Force India before finding confidence to push harder and on the super-soft tyres jumped to eighth on the timesheet with a best lap of 1m 25.467s.

"It was a very positive day with a lot of mileage and some good work with different tyre compounds," Celis said. "It was interesting to come back here after winter testing: the track and weather conditions are quite different and the same applies to the car, so it took a few runs to adapt.

"I feel more and more confident with the car, but I am still treading carefully not to make mistakes: my priority is to do the job the team is asking me to do, but hopefully I'll be able to push a bit more tomorrow."

Celis Jr is on driving duties for Force India on the second and concluding day of the F1 in-season test at Circuit de Catalunya.

Zdroj: crash.net