Second Jerez Testing - 17-20 February (timing/updates)

OK, we'll see how he does in Qually. What is your prediction of where he will put the car on the grid?

MB

 

I have utterly no clue. Hard to say who will be where among Williams, Renault, Force India and Sauber. A lot will depend on whether they're stronger at faster tracks this year. Kubica and RB are the best in that bunch.

 

Jerez update: Schumi and the sun shine
Friday 19th February 2010 - PlanetF1.com

Michael Schumacher made the most of the Jerez sunshine to lead the way after the opening hour on Day Three.

For the first time this week, an almost dry track and blue sky greeted the drivers as they ventured out for the start of Friday's running.

Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button, Mark Webber and Nico Hulkenberg were the first out, with the latter reporting that "the weather in Jerez is fairly acceptable and the forecast looks quite good as well."

Virgin's Lucas di Grassi joined the fray along with Heikki Kovalainen. It was the Finn's first lap since crashing his T127 around midday on Wednesday, bringing Lotus' running to a standstill as the team didn't have the parts on hand to repair the damage.

Lotus tech boss Mike Gascoyne revealed the team's plans for the morning, saying: "We plan to do some starts and then wait for dry conditions."

Michael Schumacher, who is replacing team-mate Nico Rosberg as the Mercedes GP duo alternate days of testing, set the first timed lap of the day but was quickly overhauled by Webber, who in turn lost out to Button and Alonso.

The reigning World Champion traded quickest laps with Alonso as the duo quickly broke into the 1:27s. However, their brief battle came to an end when Kovalainen brought out the first red flag of the day.

Heading out for his first timed run, the Finn's T127 came to a halt at the approach to Turn 9 with some reports claiming smoke was seen before Kovalainen's stopped.

Testing resumed with Schumacher taking to the top of the timesheets, a 1:26.745 for the seven-time World Champion. The German continued lapping to lower then benchmark time to a 1:26.701.

Webber moved up to second place ahead of Button and Alonso while Jaime Alguersuari and Robert Kubica were the only other drivers to set times.

Unofficial Times
1. M. Schumacher Mercedes GP W01 1:26.701 11 laps
2. M. Webber Red Bull Racing RB6 1:27.111 +0.410 17 laps
3. J. Button McLaren MP4-25 1:27.461 +0.760 8 laps
4. F. Alonso Ferrari F60 1:27.724 +1.023 10 laps
5. J. Alguersuari Toro Rosso STR5 1:29.988 +3.287 10 laps
6. R. Kubica Renault R30 1:33.569 +6.868 3 laps

 

Jerez update: Blue skies and Button
Friday 19th February 2010

Jenson Button topped the charts on Friday morning, setting the fastest time for this week's Jerez test. It was, however, still eight-tenths short of his team-mate's best from last week.


With blue skies and just the occasional cloud overhead, Friday's running got underway on an ever-drying track with Michael Schumacher setting the pace in the opening hour while Heikki Kovalainen was responsible for what seems to have become the traditional early morning red flag.


The Finn came to halt at Turn 9 with tech boss Mike Gascoyne reporting that the "car stopped with a clutch sensor failure. Replacing sensor and updating front wing while waiting for circuit to dry."


With the action again underway the battle for the P1 slot saw Schumacher, Button, Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber all take a turn at leading the way, at least until the next stoppage came.


Virgin's morning began on a positive note with the team delighted when Lucas di Grassi found a bit of pace, at least it was at the time when compared with what his rivals were sitting.


"Good ol' Grassi has pulled a 1m31.6s lap out already!" said the team. "How's that for a Friday feeling!"


Five minutes later he was in the gravel, narrowly avoiding putting the front end of his VR01 into the barriers and bringing out the session to a temporary halt while the marshals returned his car to the Virgin garage.


The pit lane reopened 20 minutes later, prompting Sauber to send out Kamui Kobayashi on his first run of the day. It didn't last long, though, as the Japanese rookie came to halt out on track on his very first lap, once again bringing the session to a halt.


After a brief pause it was back to the action with Ferrari eager to get in some serious running: "A festival of red flags so far. Now it's time to run on slick tyres!"


And the slicks meant, finally, there was a battle to see just who really is quickest.


Schumacher took the lead and Alonso second, both drivers in the 1:23s. But they were soon overthrown by Button as the McLaren driver put in a blistering 1:22.693.


However, the reigning World Champ's time was still over three seconds short of last week's best, which was set by his team-mate Lewis Hamilton.


Returning to the track after his previous eight-lap run, Alonso took control, posting a 1:21.969. The Spaniard was soon joined out on track by di Grassi, whose VR01 escaped any serious damage in his earlier incident.


Kubica improved to second for Renault before being dropped as Button returned to the front with a 1:21.435 - getting ever closer to Hamilton's 2010 best.


Webber was the next to challenge for the P1 slot but the Red Bull racer fell 0.249s short - and stopped. Red flags number four as the Aussie stopped between Turns 8 and 9.


With Webber's RB6 back in the pits the track was green-lighted and the drivers quickly on the pace. Button again improved his P1 time, dropping it to a 1:20.394 to top the morning session.


Webber was second ahead of Alonso and Kubica.


Unofficial Times
1. J. Button McLaren MP4-25 1:20.394 40 laps
2. M. Webber Red Bull Racing RB6 1:21.684 +1.290 46 laps
3. F. Alonso Ferrari F10 1:21.771 +1.377 56 laps
4. R. Kubica Renault R30 1:21.916 +1.522 45 laps
5. J. Alguersuari Toro Rosso STR5 1:22.973 +2.579 64 laps
6. M. Schumacher Mercedes GP W01 1:23.320 +2.926 23 laps
7. A. Sutil Force India VJM-03 1:23.715 +3.321 35 laps
8. N. Hülkenberg Williams FW32 1:25.357 +4.963 56 laps
9. K. Kobayashi Sauber C29 1:25.818 +5.424 6 laps
10. L. Di Grassi Virgin Racing VR-01 1:31.670 +11.276 22 laps

 

Carol,

Thanks for the link! Great photo gallery as well.

 

At this point, it looks to me that this should be a very competitive year...

 

That would be really great. Portimao is a great circuit and many drivers love it... pitty that it still didn't manage to become one of F1's Grand Prix...probably because Portugal can't afford to pay Bernie's millions!!!

 

Yeah it looks as if we are gonna have a party this year...maybe this time changes in regulations have done something right...
Also looking forward to see what the newcomer teams can do!!!

 

Pos. Driver Car Best Time Laps
1. Mark Webber Red Bull RB6 1:19.299 115
2. Fernando Alonso Ferrari F10 1:20.115 132
3.
Jenson Button Mclaren MP4-25 1:20.394 101
4. Nico Hulkenberg Williams FW32 1:21.432 138
5. Michael Schumacher Mercedes W01 1:21.437 79
6. Robert Kubica Renault R30 1:21.916 100
7. Adrian Sutil Force India VJM03 1:21.939 69
10. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber C29 1:22.228 28
8. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso STR5 1:22.564 120
9. Lucas di Grassi Virgin VR-01 1:23.504 34
11. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus T127 1:23.521 68


© ESPN EMEA Ltd.
Feeds: ESPNF1 Staff

After an unexpectedly dry day at Jerez, Mark Webber finished top of the table and recorded the fastest lap at the Spanish circuit so far during testing. Despite the near perfect conditions the day was disrupted by six red flags, the fourth of which was caused by Webber's Red Bull stopping on track.

Throughout the day the fastest lap was shared between Webber, Jenson Button - who eventually finished third - and Fernando Alonso, whose time of 1:20.115 was good enough for second fastest.

Nico Hulkenberg clocked up 138 laps - the highest number by any driver - as Williams spent the day running race simulations and practicing pit stops. The team experienced no problems until the car stopped on track with five minutes of the session remaining, halting action for the day.

Despite a long unexplained absence during the middle of the day, Michael Schumacher ran for 79 laps, recording a best time of 1:21.437, enough to leave him fifth in the standings. Robert Kubica enjoyed an uneventful day in the Renault and ran as high as fourth at one point before finishing the day sixth.

Force India's Adrian Sutil did not venture out until after 11am, but despite the slow start to the day, still recorded 69 laps. It was a torrid day for Sauber, as Kamui Kobayashi only started running just before 11am and immediately caused the third red flag of the day. It turned out to be a fuel supply problem, but the car was not ready to run again until after 4pm. As a result the team managed only 28 laps, missing out on the best conditions of the week so far.



Williams practiced pit stops before a planed race simulation © Sutton Images

Virgin's Lucas di Grassi was responsible for two of the six stoppages of the day, the first when he spun off (narrowly avoiding making contact with the barriers) in the morning, the second when his car came to a halt on track later in the afternoon. With all the problems Virgin only completed 34 laps. The only consolation came in recording a marginally quicker time than fellow newcomers Lotus.

After a crash stopped Lotus' testing yesterday, it took just over half an hour for Heikki Kovalainento stop the session again today, this time a faulty clutch sensor was to blame. After a long stint in the garage Kovalainen returned to action, only for a cracked exhaust to further blight his efforts. He finished the day at the bottom of the table, but recorded a respectable 68 laps.

Testing concludes at Jerez on Saturday, with more fine weather forecast
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Button put up an 18.8 this morning but did only 2 laps so he was on fumes.

Thus far I'm impressed with ferrari reliability and their consistency on long runs, which means that tire degradation (hopefully) will not be a problem, On the other hand McL and RB are supposedly introducing some super diffuser at the next test..