A Woking based team member has been dispatched on a 9,000 kilometre race from Britain to Suzuka.

He must reach the Japanese circuit in about 21 hours, in order to beat the parc ferme deadline so that Lewis Hamilton can be back up and running with the MP5-25′s new rear wing for qualifying and the race.

The Briton broke the new wing’s left endfence in his morning practice crash, and the only other version in Japan is fitted to Jenson Button’s sister car.

When Hamilton returned to the track with 9 minutes of the afternoon session remaining, his car was fitted with the old wing as he drove to the 13th quickest time.

At the same time, a team member had been dispatched from the UK to bring new endplates to Suzuka in his hand-luggage.

“We can repair the wing with the new end plates,” team boss Martin Whitmarsh is quoted by Auto Motor und Sport.

At the track, Hamilton’s mechanics are also facing a long night.  The 25-year-old’s chassis has also been damaged, and – after a patch-up job for the few afternoon practice laps – a new car will be built up overnight.

Mercifully, Jenson Button’s similar Degner spin did not result in contact with the tyre barrier, and Michael Schumacher and others also had moments in the same section.

“The bumps in the first part are worse than last year,” said Sebastian Vettel, despite the organisers having modified the kerbs after last year’s multiple crashes there.

Fernando Alonso was cautious after topping the drier second practice session at Hockenheim on Friday.

The Spaniard was marginally quicker than Sebastian Vettel, while teammate Felipe Massa split the occupant of the sister Red Bull by going third quickest.

“Ferrari looks extremely competitive,” said Vettel.

McLaren had a more difficult day at the office, but the team is likely to keep its new blown diffuser on the car for the rest of the weekend, despite Lewis Hamilton saying it wasn’t “perfect”.

“I think we can risk going with the new floor,” Martin Whitmarsh is quoted by the German media.

Jenson Button was just fifteenth in the afternoon, while Hamilton was seventh after sitting out most of the session while the damage sustained in his morning crash was repaired.

“The Red Bulls and Ferrari look fast, faster than we expected,” said Button.  “I don’t know if we’ll be as quick.”

Said German Vettel: “I am sure they (McLaren) will come back tomorrow and be up there.”

Alonso, however, was reserving his judgement.  “Difficult to know today, I think we have to wait for tomorrow,” he said.

It rained again after the afternoon session, and more rain is possible on Saturday.

Overnight in the McLaren pits, the British team have removed an update package – including the Red Bull-style blown diffuser – from the MP4-25 car.
Red Bull’s Mark Webber suspected the championship leaders of “sandbagging” in Friday practice at Silverstone, but in fact McLaren was not happy with the improvements.

“It hasn’t been perfect, that’s the truth,” said Jenson Button after the afternoon session, when he was 13th fastest.

Lewis Hamilton, although half a second quicker than the sister car, added: “The feeling was positive first thing but the changes we made didn’t make it better and that happens sometimes.

“It’s not something you can just bolt on,” added the world championship leader.

Mark Webber set Friday’s fastest practice time, but the Australian also sat out the end of the afternoon session while Red Bull repaired an electrical problem.

But in the sister RB6, 2009 winner Sebastian Vettel had been the quickest runner in the morning, demonstrating that the Austrian-owned team is still the favourite for British grand prix victory.

McLaren debuted its Red Bull-like blown exhaust layout on Friday, but Lewis Hamilton – the fastest of the two MP5-25s – was 1.5 seconds off the pace.

His teammate Jenson Button, nearly two seconds too slow in the afternoon, said: “We know it (the new package) will take a little bit getting used to and I am sure there is setup work needed, so we are going to have a busy couple of days getting it right.”

Closest to Webber’s ultimate pace was Fernando Alonso, but the Ferrari was four tenths slower in the afternoon session.

“I am quite optimistic for the weekend, but we know the characteristics of the track are maybe not the same as Canada or Valencia, so we will see,” said the Spaniard.

“I think Red Bull are clearly the favourites at the moment,” added Alonso.

Bruno Senna will return to the wheel of his HRT car at Hockenheim in two weeks.

The new Spanish team has replaced the Brazilian at Silverstone with reserve driver Sakon Yamamoto, amid speculation the Japanese is better funded.

But Senna, 26, is at the Northamptonshire venue on Friday and has been locked in meetings with team boss Colin Kolles and manager Chris Goodwin.

Hispania then said in a statement that the team “decided to give an opportunity” to Yamamoto, who turns 28 on Friday.

“Bruno Senna will continue to drive in the remaining races,” the statement added.

Yamamoto is more than a second off the pace of team regular Karun Chandhok at Silverstone, and during the afternoon session looked to be suffering from a sore neck.

HRT’s statement referred to “the rumours” about Senna’s financial position, but neither Senna, Goodwin or Kolles would explain the true reasons for the Silverstone situation.

Bruno Senna’s earlier fears have come true in Monaco.

After qualifying in Barcelona less than a week ago, we reported that the Brazilian rookie believed his HRT chassis was carrying an inherent problem.

He was the slowest qualifier in Spain, and he remarked that “there is something wrong at the back” of his F110.

Senna retired into the gravel on the opening lap, and then confirmed to France’s Auto Hebdo that the new Spanish team had not identified the car’s problem in the three-day gap before Thursday’s practice running in Monaco.

He was nearly two seconds slower than his teammate Karun Chandhok in the afternoon session in the Principality, where his famous uncle won no less than a record six times.

Senna, 26, won the GP2 race at Monaco in 2008.

“There is something wrong at the back and we still have not found what it is,” he said.

More than 7 seconds further up the timesheets, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso was quickest once again on Thursday afternoon, ahead of Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel.

(GMM)

May 7 (GMM)  Ferrari has in fact not decided whether to keep using its new full F-duct system for the remainder of the Spanish grand prix weekend.

It has been reported that, after a shakedown at Vairano in Giancarlo Fisichella’s hands and tests on the race cars at Barcelona on Friday, the downforce-spoiling system will stay on the F10 for qualifying and the race in Spain.

But Fernando Alonso, quicker than Massa throughout Friday and fourth fastest in the afternoon session, said a final decision will only be taken “this evening”.

“The system worked well but obviously, despite the fact we have tested it on various occasions, we still lack a bit of experience before we can get the best out of it,” he added.

This afternoon although Davide Valsecchi was quickest on track, five newcomers climbed again in the Top 10 finishers. GP2 Series Pre-season testing came to an end today (Friday) in Barcelona with rookies firmly proving their strengths and potential, Christian Vietoris leading the field in the morning session and setting the best laptime of the day. A total of six rookies finished in the Top 10.

On great form since the beginning of the three-day test session, rookie Vietoris at Racing Engineering took top spot one hour after the pitlane opened and stayed put until lunch break. Oliver Turvey moved up to second fastest in the last half hour of the session edging out Dani Clos on the second Racing Engineering car.

Also competitive was Charles Pic at Arden, finishing fourth, his strongest showing so far. Behind him was another Frenchman and newcomer, ART’s Jules Bianchi rounding the Top 5. Yesterday’s quickest man Jérôme d’Ambrosio finished in 6th place ahead of Pastor Maldonado, the two Super Nova cars – Josef Kral ahead of Marcus Ericsson, and Sergio Perez at Addax. The session was red flagged twice, first following the collision between Ho-Pin Tung and Adrian Zaugg at Turn 5, and then after Bianchi hit the barriers at Turn 3 because of a technical gremlin.

While Leimer topped the timesheet for most of the afternoon session, the last thirty minutes where once again extremely animated and saw drastic changes in the classification. It started with Davide Valsecchi taking the lead with Maldonado moving up to second place three hundredths behind. Fabio Leimer at Ocean confirmed his good form in third place ahead of rookies Sam Bird, Turvey and Bianchi. Giedo van der Garde finished in seventh place with Max Chilton, Luiz Razia and d’Ambrosio in tow.

This marks the end of pre-season tests for GP2 Series. The 2010 season will kick off in Barcelona alongside Formula One on May 7, 8, 9.

(YF1)

The afternoon session has been calmer than the morning.  At the beginning of the session, Alonso and Schumacher lapped 1:15 high, with a lot of fuel in the tank.

The fuel weights and single-seaters’ performance marked the start of this session.  In his initial laps, Jaime Alguersuari had a slip that caused him to leave the track, but after returning to the boxes he reintegrated without great consequences.

With the single-seaters in the racetrack, De la Rosa, Petrov, Button and Alguersuari, the Spanish pilot of the BMW Sauber began to get good times, without decreasing his record.

With a 1:12 rhythm, De la Rosa began the afternoon as the fastest at the Ricardo Tormo, while Petrov improved the R30 performance notably with 1:13:666.  Nonetheless, the one who didn’t seem to be comfortable in the racetrack was the current champion, Jeson Button who was running over 1:13, far away from the “Kaiser’s” times.

Alonso with 180 liters of fuel, has to modify his style and form of driving the F10.  The pilot from Asturias, today could not stop lapping, therefore taking the most advantage of these official tests.

As time went by and the bi-champion’s single-seater used its fuel, he started to reduce his times, again.  After his stop at the boxes at 16:01, he began to run in 1:13, possibly with medium fuel charge.

When the session ended, , the  Ferrari finished rolling in 1:12 lows, after 127 laps to the Valencian circuit.  In this moment, Vitaly Petrov marked his best time, 1:13.097.

1º. Fernando Alonso 1:11.470 in 127 laps
2º. Pedro de la Rosa 1:12.094 in 79 laps
3º. Michael Schumacher 1:12.438 in 82 laps
4º. Jaime Alguersuari 1:12.576 in 96 laps
5º. Jinson Button 1:12.951 in 82 laps
6º. Nico Hulkinberg 1:13.669 in 126 laps
7º. Vitaly Petrov 1:13.097 in 76 laps

The afternoon session began with comments in the paddock regarding the possibility of seeing Fernando Alonso testing the Ferrari F10.  With a warmer weather and more grip on the tracks the single-seaters started to leave the boxes heading to the Valencian Ricardo Tormo Circuit’s racetrack in Cheste.

With a lost Austrian –we say ‘lost” because we didn’t see him through all the morning (strange thing)-, Lewis Hamilton started by lowering his morning times, 1:12.256, but still far from Felipe Massa’s chronometer and his F10.  That’s how the afternoon started.

At 3:30 the pilot from Austria was seen around the box, and rumors spread with regards to his possible participation in today’s tests.

Massa carried out many tyre tests –we assumed he was testing their performance-, explaining why the Brazilian entered the box continuously.  The same as Ferrari, the rest of the ‘scuderias’ tested their performance, thus the morning times were not improved.

The Renault improved only a bit.  The Polish, Robert Kubica, wearing a completely black helmet, continued to average very high times ( 1:14 ).  The R30 seems to have very little performance evolution compared to its predecessor, last year’s R29.

Today was a hard working day for Nico Rosberg who commanding his Mercedes GP made all kinds of tests.  Yesterday, his single-seater was very fast, but today it was slower marking 1:14. high times and running 25 lap periods to try the tyres out.

The Ferrari engine Sabuer of Kobayashi, after completing a period of 30 laps started to lower its times, becoming one of the fastest of the afternoon ( 1:12.667 ).  The Sauber is giving a good impression in these first tests.

The first impressions of Barichello on his Williams FW32’s Cosworth engine, indicate less speed (point) than the rest.  Specifically, around 8-12km/h (Mercedes and Ferrari).

In a bit more than an hour the session will end.   We’re walking towards the paddock to pick up some feelings.

Today, the Valencian circuit has had around 7.000 spectators, according to the organization.  A good number of people has gotten together to see the tests, so if climate conditions permit it, a higher number is expected for tomorrow with the attendance of Fernando Alonso in the racetrack.

Best times of the day.

1º Massa (1:11.722)

2º Kobayashi (1:12.056)

3º Hamilton (1:12.056)

4º Rosberg (1:12. 899)

5º Barrichello (1:13.377)