Virgin Racing team boss John Booth said his crew were feeling 'buoyant' after his fledgling squad finally managed some extended running on the final day of testing at Jerez yesterday (Saturday).
Rain, late components and a front wing problem that forced a rapid redesign had all conspired to keep Virgin's VR-01 in the garage for much of the first three days of testing, but yesterday Lucas di Grassi was able to complete 63 laps in the car.
"This is a great reward for the team," Booth said.
"They have all worked so hard over the past few days to achieve such positive running on our final day here.
"Everyone is extremely buoyant and looking forward to being back here in Jerez next week."
Di Grassi was thrilled to put some laps on the new car, and encouraged to be within 3.3s of the pace despite Virgin's tough week and lack of experience.
"After three days of very little running, in the space of one day we have completed lots of mileage in the dry and we were able to work through lots of important items on our programme," he said.
"The car was behaving much better after the work we did since yesterday and I think what we have achieved today is a very good start for our team."
The Brazilian added that he felt the Virgin team had proved its strength in adversity during the test.
"I would like to thank the guys for working some unbelievable hours this week," he said.
"The way they have come together is fantastic and generally I am very happy with where we are."
Designer Nick Wirth said his team had kept its head down and kept working, and was delighted with yesterday's breakthrough.
"It is very pleasing to end our first test on such a positive note, having finally achieved some solid running in dry conditions," he said.
"We have remained focused on the job list in hand and given that we have been working with a representative fuel load to evaluate various set-ups, our lap time and rate of progress is encouraging at this very early stage."
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