Simona de Silvestro completes rookie test day
New Nissan Motorsport recruit Simona de Silvestro has kicked off her 2017 Supercars campaign by completing a rookie test day at Winton.
The day marked de Silvestro's first chance to drive the car as a full-time competitor in the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship after two wildcard starts at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000.
In a low key outing after she landed in Australia on Monday evening, de Silvestro became the first driver in the championship to trial Dunlop’s new tyre ahead of the field’s test day at Sydney Motorsport Park on February 21.
Nissan Motorsport boss and team-mate Rick Kelly was on-hand during the test.
“It's been great to see how Simona has embraced the whole thing,” Kelly explained to Supercars.com.
“She only just arrived and she has just gotten on with it.
“Straight away her times were very respectable and that was before she got to tuning the car.
"Everything is going to plan after what was a really strong first day for Simona.”
De Silvestro completed today's running without engineer Blake Smith, who will look after her #78 Altima throughout the season.
Smith is one of a number of Supercars engineers working at this weekend's Bathurst 12 Hour, bolstering Audi's assault on the race.
