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Caterham capable of even faster lap times - Asmat

Heikki Kovalainen set the seventh fastest time on Saturday © Sutton Images

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• Heikki Kovalainen

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Caterham's Deputy team principal Riad Asmat is confident there is more pace to be unlocked from the team's new car, despite it setting a time at the Circuit de Catalunya on Saturday worthy of a top ten grid position at the 2011 Spanish Grand Prix.

Heikki Kovalainen set the seventh fastest time of this week's Barcelona test with a 1:22.630 on Saturday. The lap represents significant progress for the team after it spent its first two years in the sport several seconds off the pace. Asmat is confident Caterham is making up ground on its midfield rivals, but said there is still more to come.

"Another good day and more signs of the sort of progress we wanted to make at this test, even with the interruption the rain caused this afternoon," he said. "Heikki's lap this morning shows that we have taken a small step forward in pace compared to where we finished the 2011 season, but we still have a lot of work to do and we know we can find more pace from this year's package.

"For me, one of the most encouraging signs of how far we have come is the fact that we keep edging ever closer to the midfield and yet there is absolutely no complacency in the team. Everybody is working even harder than ever to help us bridge that gap and with a team spirit like that we are putting ourselves in a very good position."

Kovalainen added: "We were able to complete this morning's plan and we have found a good direction on setup that is giving me real confidence in the balance which is what we wanted before we head to Melbourne. The afternoon session was cut short by the rain but not before we had finished the tests we wanted to do on start procedures, pre-race programs and all the background checks you have to get done over the winter tests.

"I think we've now caught up with the time we lost last week so now we need to make sure Vitaly [Petrov] has a good day tomorrow and put us in the best possible shape for the first race in just over two weeks."

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