Pedro de la Rosa made his debut as Pirelli's F1 tire development driver, carrying out a two-day test at the Valencia circuit. The test was also the first time that the Italian manufacturer worked with its wet and intermediate rubber on an artificially damp circuit.
Driving the Toyota TF109 used by Pirelli for testing, de la Rosa covered some 400 miles during the course of the two days.
"It's a real pleasure for me to be working with Pirelli this year, and I'm delighted to have finally had the chance to try out these tires," said de la Rosa. "We completed all the work we wanted to do during this initial session, and now we have a clearer idea about future avenues for development."
Pirelli's motorsport director Paul Hembery added: "As we were running our intermediate and wet tires for the very first time, effectively our program was starting from scratch once more. We worked through our schedule exactly as planned, and we were able to get an initial impression of our performance in wet and drying conditions. This has enabled us to identify the areas in which we are strong and the areas that we need to develop further, which is always the aim in testing. It's been great working with Pedro de la Rosa, whose experience has given us a well-informed perspective on the characteristics of our tires.
"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."
Pirelli's next tire test will be at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona at the end of the month.