Raikkonen tops Barcelona testing BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) Ferrari's former world champion Kimi Raikkonen easily topped the second day of testing at the Circuit de Catalunya here on Tuesday. With a best time of 1min 20.314sec the Finn was almost six tenths of a second quicker that Williams' Japanese test driver Kazuki Nakajima. After completing 55 laps in his team's new F60 car Raikkonen told a press conference: "I'm happy how the car works now. "It's a different thing in testing and in racing of course. We go in many different places but so far it's been good and I'm pretty happy how things are going. But we'll see in two weeks how things go." He added: "The car is handling well and I'm happy with it. That's the main thing. As long as we don't have any problem, we should be okay. But it's very difficult to say about how everybody else is doing. It's better to wait for the first race and we'll see." Nakajima narrowly came in faster than Brazilian F1 veteran Rubens Barrichello whose speed in the new Brawn GP car augurs well for the former Honda team now owned by Ross Brawn. McLaren had a low key day with Heikki Kovalainen coming in well down the times as the team's world champion Lewis Hamilton dealt with the minor matter of a meeting with Britain's Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace to pick up his MBE. The 2009 F1 season starts in Melbourne on March 29. Barcelona test times Kimi Raikkonen (FIN) Ferrari 1min 20.314sec (55 laps) Kazuki Nakajima (JPN) Williams 1:20.907 (66) Rubens Barrichello (BRA) Brawn GP 1:20.966 (111) Jarno Trulli (ITA) Toyota 1:21.182 (121) Mark Webber (AUS) Red Bull 1:21.347 (66) Nick Heidfeld (GER) BMW 1:21.615 (127) Adrian Sutil (GER) Force India 1:21.834 (82) Fernando Alonso (ESP) Renault 1:21.937 (111) Heikki Kovalainen (FIN) McLaren 1:21.991 (88) Sebastien Bourdais (FRA) Toro Rosso 1:23.039 (14)
It's gonna be one hell of a season. Fred tipped Toyota to make the biggest difference. I really hope we can see RedBull, Brawn GP, Williams, Toyota and BMW challenging for race wins, instead of just Ferrari and Mclaren. Sepaking of Mclaren, Haug seems worried...
Testing is one thing and racing is another, but based on the times recorded in Jerez last week and so far at Circuit de Catalunya this week, Formula One could be in for a real shake-up when the season gets underway in Australia. Jenson Button took over testing duties in the new Brawn Mercedes from Rubens Barrichello today and set the pace a cool second clear of Felipe Massa in the Ferrari. Button completed 130 laps, his fastest time of 1:19.127s coming on his 93rd tour of the day. To put Buttons pace into perspective, Kimi Raikkonen claimed pole position, albeit with race fuel on board, at the same circuit for the Spanish Grand Prix last year on a 1:21.813 while the fastest lap so far this week was a 1:20.314. read the full thing here!! wow!! http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/090311173936.shtml
