The WilliamsF1 team from Grove heads to Sunday's San Marino Grand Prix aiming to keep up their winning record at the Imola circuit.

Since the race joined the calendar in 1981, the Oxfordshire team have won 30 per cent of the races held at Imola. Following both retirements in Australia, the team has re-doubled its efforts to strengthen the reliability of the FW28 and is hopeful of improving its fortunes at a track which has often delivered results in the past.

During the three week break between the Australian and San Marino Grands Prix, the team has completed two test sessions in Vallelunga and Barcelona.

Alex Wurz undertook testing duties for the two days in Vallelunga, covering nearly 800kms while carrying out critical tyre evaluations in preparation for Imola as well as running new suspension parts on the FW28.

Last week's Barcelona test saw all the Williams drivers out in force with a four-day session at the Spanish track. Mark Webber, Nico Rosberg, Wurz and Narain Karthikeyan all assumed testing responsibilities, recording just under 3,000kms while working on reliability issues and improving the performance of the FW28.

Mark Webber said: "Being the first European race of the season, Imola is always keenly awaited by everyone as it feels as though we're finally back home after the first three flyaways and that the new season is really under way.

"There's always a pretty good atmosphere in the paddock as we return to working out of our motorhomes and the whole set-up has a much more traditional and familiar feel.

"The track itself provides us with a unique challenge as it's somewhere we really have to use the kerbs quite a lot. I've always enjoyed racing at Imola and, falling after a successful test at Barcelona last week when both Bridgestone and Williams made good progress with the tyres and car respectively, I'm looking forward to getting the car on the track."

WilliamsF1 technical director, Sam Michael, said:"We have identified the problem we had on Mark's gearbox in Melbourne and put corrections in place to avoid that type of failure again. Imola mainly consists of medium and high speed corners and chicanes.

"The kerb-riding requirements at San Marino tend to dominate the mechanical set-up of the car, but high speed stability is also important. We will have some aerodynamic and mechanical improvements on the FW28, all of which form part of our normal season-long development programme. Bridgestone have been working hard to improve tyre grip on low temperature surfaces and, as a result of this work, we will have two new tyre designs in Imola."