 |
Button, Alonso and Webber competingComments Off With a completely dry Jerez circuit, all the cars are now unveiling in dry. However, during the morning, the times started to drop. Button, Alonso and Webber are competing to clock the fastest lap. McLaren is currently leading at the top of the timesheet with 1:20.394 – a second faster than the best time we have seen in Jerez up to now. A mechanical failure of Webber, just after 12:00 PM, affected the Red Bull program and caused the red flag of the fifth day. On the other hand, Di Grassi did not arrive to the party on time, because by the beginning of the morning he had not finished a complete lap and is again 11 seconds behind the best time. Lotus is the only racing team that has not timed to this moment, but hopes its gearbox problem is solved and his pilot is determined to take the track this evening. Williams has begun its box stop testing, and reports point out that Hulkenberg will do a simulation race this evening if the sky remains so clear. Everything is trouble-free with Mercedes: Schumacher arrived late to the circuit, and ran few laps. At lunch time, Toro Rosso had completed most of the laps (64) while Kobayashi in the Sauber the least (6). This is contrary to the announcement made that said that the racing team was waiting for good weather to run many miles. MORNING TIMES |
 |
Thursday’s Evening Session at Jerez CircuitComments Off In the evening, Ferrari has hurried to clarify that the F10 problems had nothing to do with the new chassis that Felipe Massa unveiled yesterday. As a matter of fact, they declared it was time to prepare for Bahrain, making clear that the initial tests were surmounted. After Massa slid off the track, Vettel improved his time (1:28.162), leaving Red Bull in the third position of the timesheet. After that lap, the red flag stopped everything; the marshals had to clean the racetrack a bit because when Massa slid off his car, the racetrack received some gravel. A severe rain showered the racetrack again, with strong winds of 50km/h. which enjoyed the passing by of the single-seaters through the Jerez de la Frontera single-seaters. Timo Glock did not let the command go as had been rumored and he rolled during the evening, which Lotus could not do, after Kovalainen’s incident where the front wing of the single-seater was destroyed. Again, under the rain, Barrichello’s Williams was the one that ran more and better in the curvy racetrack of Jerez. Meanwhile, Buemi, Hamilton, Pretrov and Glock went out to the circuit to take advantage of the last minutes of the day. Nonetheless, they were not lucky, because again, there was a severe rainstorm that made it impossible to roll at too much rhythm. So much so that Glock’s Virgin stopped at the first curve, finishing his session before the time. Another day marked by the rain that altered the programmed unveiling plans and the single-seaters evolution. Forecast are not better for tomorrow. Thursday’s Final Times in Jerez 1. Barrichello 1:271.45 (74 lap) |
 |
Results of Wednesday’s testing at JerezComments Off In what is the second week of testing at the at Jerez circuit, Sebastian Vettel completed the fastest lap in 1 minute, 19.055 seconds in his Red Bull, to finish nearly 1.3 seconds quicker than Ferrari’s Felipe Massa. With intermitent showers,Toyota test driver Kumui Kobayashi was third fastest, while Nico Rosberg of Williams and MMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica made the the top-five. Giancarlo Fisichella who is going into his 14th season, set a best lap of 1:21.584 for Force India, and declared: “It’s very promising and I felt much more consistency, even under braking, and more stability in the high speed corners. We are not that far away from the other people so I am looking forward to tomorrow and another day with more laps where we can try to improve the car a little bit and concentrate on reliability.” McLaren’s Pedro de la Rosa and Nelson Piquet Jr. of Renault completed the field. Toro Rosso and Honda were the only F1 teams not present at the track in southern Spain. |
 |
The F1 teams will continue at Jerez despite rain forecastComments Off The possibility of moving from the Spanish Jerez circuit to another speedway for two of the four test days this week was suggested. Rain forecast indicated that weather conditions would be worse this week, but an adequate replacement for Jerez could not be found on such a short notice. When Sauber Beat Zendher, team principal, was asked about the possibility of moving to Valencia or else, to the Portimao circuit he answered: “The circuits are taken up and weather conditions are quite uncertain.” The pilots are waiting for the option of dry driving to be able to understand the performance of the cars and to tune them up before the March 14th Bahrain season’s opening. Hence, time is ticking away and there are only eight test days left, four in Jerez this week and four in Barcelona, next week. Weather conditions are particularly bad for the new teams. Virgin and Lotus have just unveiled their single-seaters this year with two cars that start up in zero during the winter. With scarce experience, they need dry performance much more that others with more data and experience, to be able to overcome the initial problems with their new engines. Last week, Virgin lost the best part of the day, due to the front wing failure and lack of spare parts. |
 |
Review of fourth day of unveilings’ morning sessionComments Off The rain that affected the programs of the teams on Friday was still pouring down at the beginning of the session. However, dry conditions as of mid-morning allowed the single-seaters to roll out with more confidence on this test day at Jerez (this week), where Rubens Barrichello, did best time with 1:22.319. Robert Kubica was the first to start out to a wet racetrack, with Sebastien Vettel in the Red Bull and Barrichello behind the wheel of the Williams FW32 following his trail. Nonetheless, it was Felipe Massa, who did the first timed lap of the day with the Ferrari F10. In his first attempt, the Brazilian made a time of 1:29.534, but little by little he found the rhythm until his car stopped on the grass of the pit-lane entrance. It seems as though the team is pretending to go the limit. There was the rumor that the car was deliberately left without fuel to confirm the tank’s capacity. Michael Schumacher, Massa’s ex-team mate was slightly shaky during the first moments, achieving the best lap with 1:29.768 before taking his Mercedes GP W01 to boxes, where it remained the rest of the morning. The spectators were surprised. The changing weather conditions forced the teams to the difficult task of choosing tires. Even though the pools of water in different parts of the racetrack were drying, the teams decided to play it safe and made pauses, waiting for the track to dry. Barrichello informed through the radio that the driving and visibility conditions were quite good and hoped that the team could realize an evening session “to its fullest.” Lewis Hamilton was glad with these news, who seemed distraught after he began his work with Jenson Button’s McLaren MP4-25, on Friday. He declared that the day had been a waste of time, since neither him nor McLaren had been able to make a remarkable progress on their test program due to the wet racetrack. On the contrary, Nico Rosberg, was filled with confidence after his second day with the Mercedes W01 GP, despite the fact that he was not allowed to drive in dry during two sessions. He announced feeling comfortable with the car and to be sure that the Silver Arrow “will be near the racing pole positions when the competition begins in Bahrain, on March 14th.” “We have some valuable data, like all the procedures. It’s difficult when you change teams; there is so much to learn. It’s like airspace science, you know? Two days ago I did four dry laps, and a one and a half today. I felt extremely comfortable with the car, as if I could really up. That gives me a lot of confidence, so I’m not worried with the fact that there was not much time to roll in dry” Nico assured. The first appearance of the red flags came when Vettel skidded out of the racetrack and left the Red Bull trapped at the circuit end. Yet, the delayed caused by this incident was minimal, thanks to the quick response of Jerez circuit recovery team. In 15 minutes, the RB6 was back in the boxes. At the end of the morning session began to improve quickly. Barrichello did 1:22.319 after 39 laps and Massa stopped the chronometer at 1:22.697 after 94 laps. The red flag indicated that Barrichello reached midday as time leader, three tenths faster than Massa.
|
 |
End of second day of unveiling in JerezComments Off Under a sunshine that the ‘scuderias’ in the racetrack were thankful for, the second session of unveiling began in the Jerez circuit. With the absence of Virgin Racing in the tracks, because there were no spare parts to repair the single-seater, most of the pilots ran for long periods of time. Today restarted the work that could not be done yesterday due to bad weather. The teams have collected more data and have been playing the cat and the mouse. Buemi’s Toro Rosso stopped the chronometer at 1:20.026, getting the best time of the day. Many tests and many data, would be the balance of the day, where the expected Valencia time duel did not happen. The media were left with the feeling that the duo reserved for later on. However, tomorrow if the climate allows it, there will be new unveiling with other pilots. Time classification 1. Sebastian Buemi (Toro Rosso) 1:20.026 (121 laps) |
Contacts and information
|
Social networks |
Most popular categories |
