Mark Webber’s Red Bull ground to a halt during the final quarter of the afternoon practice session at Monza.

The championship contender pulled off the track with a water pressure problem that should be easily fixed, a representative of the Austrian-owned team said.

His teammate Sebastian Vettel fared better, adding a P1 to his competitive time set in the earlier morning session.

And the Ferraris were also on the pace in the afternoon, ahead of Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren, who was running an F-duct-free MP4-25 in order to compare it with the downforce-stalling configuration on teammate Jenson Button’s car.

With the F-duct, Button was mere hundredths slower than Hamilton in the afternoon.

“Our car works very well in low downforce,” said Button. “We should be fighting at the front.”

Red Bull’s RB6 “looks excellent” on the twisty curves of the Hungaroring, according to Christian Klien.
After the dark blue cars were a full second per lap clear of the field in the morning session, Sebastian Vettel maintained his lead in the afternoon but the gap was reduced by five tenths to Hockenheim winner Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari.

“It’s a track on which you need maximum downforce,” Austrian Klien, who attends races as one of HRT’s four contracted drivers, told German Sky television.

“The Red Bull has a lot of downforce and also very good traction, which are the things you need here,” he added.

Klien, 27, is seeking a return to the F1 grid, and is likely to get a race or two at the wheel of the Hispania car this season.

Beyond that, he is eyeing the best possible vacancy for 2011.

“The best place is certainly Renault’s, absolutely,” he said, “also Sauber. There will be some movement as well with the new teams, but there are not too many places.”

Russian pay-driver Vitaly Petrov is under pressure to keep his Renault seat alongside Robert Kubica, but he put in a noteworthy effort on Friday by outpacing his teammate for fifth fastest.

“If we see Vitaly doing well every race and if we do believe he is catching up quickly enough in terms of learning, he will be with us next year,” team boss Eric Boullier said in Hungary.

“We have a lot of drivers chasing us but we will see. I want to give Vitaly the support he needs to deliver, so we will wait as long as possible.

“If he doesn’t deliver now, then maybe we will make the decision earlier,” added Boullier.

Lotus reserve driver Fairuz Fauzy will make four more appearances during Friday practice sessions in 2010.

The team announced on Tuesday that the 27-year-old Malaysian, who practiced at the wheel of the T127 in Malaysia, will be back in the car this weekend at Silverstone.

Fauzy will also be driving in the Friday morning session in Hungary, Singapore and Abu Dhabi, Lotus said in a media statement.

“I did the shakedown of chassis 04 at Snetterton a couple of weeks ago, but obviously couldn’t really push there, so it’ll be great to get back out and add whatever I can to help the team keep moving towards the midfield,” he said.

(GMM)

Mark Webber had another reliability scare during the final practice session before Saturday’s qualifying.

After his engine failure on Friday at Istanbul Park, the back-to-back winner and joint championship leader lost a third of the 60-minute morning session.

The Australian’s Red Bull crawled back to the pits on engine tickover, after his electronic throttle stopped communicating to his replaced Renault powerplant.

And when he returned to the track, Webber – whose teammate Sebastian Vettel topped the session – was among the several drivers who spectacularly spun at the notorious Turn 8.

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton was another driver having trouble with the four-apex bend, spinning and – like Felipe Massa on Friday – cutting all the way to the canvas of his tyres.

Force India’s Adrian Sutil failed to set a laptime due an hydraulic problem.

(GMM)

The team’s new reserve and test driver is quoted by motorline.cc as confirming that his contract is for the entire 2010 season.

Despite contesting 48 grands prix dating back to 2004 and spending three full years as a test driver with works squads BMW and Honda, he received his new super license mere minutes before the 90-minute morning session began at Barcelona.

“The team has brought me in so I can give feedback to the engineers and compare the car with BMW and Honda,” said the 27-year-old, who was half a second quicker than race regular Bruno Senna.

“The car is obviously not up to formula one-standard,” added the Austrian.  “It has much too little downforce and the details are not as good as with the other cars.”

He explained that the Dallara-built car is “very difficult” to drive, insisting the Cosworth “engine is not the main problem”.

Karun Chandhok will have to admit to being “amazed” after sitting out the morning practice session in Barcelona.

To both his and teammate Bruno Senna’s chagrin in Spain, the Indian rookie’s HRT car was occupied instead by new test and reserve driver Christian Klien.

Austrian Klien’s 26 laps were the first at a grand prix weekend since he practiced in a Honda in 2007, but he has been brought in by team boss Colin Kolles for his experience of 48 grands prix and three subsequent years of testing.

Before the morning session, Chandhok was quoted as saying by the BBC: “I’ll be amazed if he goes half a second quicker than Bruno; I highly doubt it.”

However, Klien was in fact exactly half a second quicker than Brazilian rookie Senna, cutting the deficit to F1′s other new teams to just five tenths.

Chandhok said: “Christian has got good experience of some good teams so he could bring something.

“The team is a little bit behind the game, so any information we can get from other people is useful.  It’s frustrating for me, I want to drive the car as much as possible.”

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)

Today, Thursday, the unveilings have restarted with rain after yesterday’s unpredictable day.  A of 10 AM, rainstorm limited the unveilings at Jerez; none could complete 30 laps.  A little while after 11 AM, the severe storm caused stagnant water in the racetrack generating a red flag.

As a result, times are even more diverse than yesterday’s, with Felipe Massa leading the timesheet previous to the rainfall.  The only team that made a remarkable progress was Virgin, with Timo Glock driving up to 26 wet laps.

On its part, Lotus, seems to have stepped backwards and no time has been registered up to now.  For a few moments, at the Lotus box, fire was seen coming out from under the engine’s cover, but the team has not yet announced the reason.

Renault has not established a lap time neither at the beginning of the session.  Vitaly Petrov continues his second consecutive testing day under the rain.

The teams gathered again on a wet racetrack on the second testing day and more precipitation is expected for tomorrow.  The programs were fractured yesterday by two severe rainstorms and five red flags, and it seems that today is not going to be different.

Felipe Massa went directly to the top part of the timesheet with a time of 1:28.879 at the beginning of his second successive testing day.  The only teams that changed their UPS line were Mercedes, with Nico Rosberg behind the steering wheel, and Lotus, that made the first test with Heikki Kovalainen with the el T127.  Paul di Resta continues in Force India, but it is expected that in any moment, he will be substituted by Tonio Liuzzi.  Lucas di Grassi, today will share his single-seater ,Virgin with Timo Glock.

Just before a break for lunch, the racetrack began to improve and that allowed some time modifications.  Barrichello placed himself first at one thirty with a best time of 1:28.499 in a rather long session (he remained in the track for 20 minutes straight.) Hamilton clocked his best personal time of the day with 1:31.833, but very far from the morning’s best times.  Afterwards, the Brazilian in his Williams stopped the chronometer in 1:27.145, using all the fuel.

Right now, Petrov with his Renault went back to the racetrack and placed himself second with 1:27.891.  The track is drying, although there are still some pools.  Ferrari has not explained its long stop at the boxes.  It has been rumored that it had an electrical problem.  At the end of the morning session, only the Russian pilot, Petrov and Barrichello have dropped off from 1:28.9.

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 14^th.”

“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.

Despite the wet racetrack due to yesterday’s rain, the morning session allowed to collect and prove the single-seaters’ new modifications.

The pilots scheduled for the morning rolled out: Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button, Mark Webber, Nico Hulkenberg, Viantonio Liuzzi, Sebastian Buemi, Michael Schumacher, Timo Glock and Kobayashi.

During the morning two red flags were seen, the second being more significant, because a front wing belonging to Timo Glock’s car roamed in the racetrack and the German pilot passed over it destroying it.

Sebástien Buemi’s Toro Rosso was a surprise making the best time; the pilot from Switzerland lowered his own times.  Alonso remained up to an hour in the boxes doing changes to the F10.  Everything is ready for the evening. The teams expect better racetrack conditions.

Second day’s morning times

1. Sebastian Buemi (Toro Rosso) 1:20.026 (58 laps)
2. Jenson Button (McLaren) 1:20.618 (29)
3. Nico Hulkenberg (Williams) 1:21.565 (28)
4. Michael Schumacher (Mercedes GP) 1:21.907 (60)
5. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) 1:21.928 (79)
6. Robert Kubica (Renault) 1:22.129 (43)
7. Vitantonio Liuzzi (Force India) 1:22.886 (37)
8. Mark Webber (Red Bull) 1:23.164 (60)
9. Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber) 1:23.190 (41)
10. Timo Glock (Virgin) 1:29.964 (11)

At 9:30 the single-seaters began to go out to the racetrack of the Jerez de la Frontera circuit, during the first day of the 2010 season’s second official unveiling.

In the morning, Fernando Alonso, started to try out the new parts that arrived all the way from Maranello, with the intention to verify mechanical elements performance, for next week when they expect to have new aerodynamic components.

The rain did not miss the appointment.  Even though it was not intense, it certainly was annoying enough during the performance checkup of the F1 racing cars.  When the rain pour began, all the single-seaters had to be taken to the boxes to make wet condition adjustments.

By the time the cars started to go out again, it was almost 10 AM and Nico Rosberg, with his Mercedes GP, was the leader of the first timesheets, even though it was not significant because he was one of the few who made some time before the rain began to fall.  Later on, the pilots were around 12 seconds higher.

Time went by without any interesting event.  In the circuit were: Ferrari, Mercedes GP, Williams, Red Bull, Force India, Toro Rosso and BMW Sauber. The Virgin VR01 must not be prepared for rain for it did not make any lap.

At midday the rain was heavier and the only thing that caught our eye were again the hard-working mechanics running to cover the diffusers to avoid photographers from pleasing us with the latest in aerodynamic novelties.

It was almost 12PM and nothing interesting happened.  There were almost no single-seaters in the racetrack and everything was extremely quiet.  My laptop (mini) seemed to say, “it’s enough for today.”  “I think a diving suit would be a good idea,” I thought and looked for shelter waiting for the rain to stop.

The third day began with the “variable” of watching Fernando Alonso drive the F10 for the first time.  This morning, the Valencian Community Ricardo Tormo Circuit was at a complete standstill.  A crowd of fans who gathered to see Alonso made long lines of cars in the A-3 freeway, a long distance the exit that leads to the Circuit.

While regularly it takes around 3-4 minutes to access the Circuit, today it almost took 20 minutes.  The expectation aroused by the pilot from Asturias was unbelievable.  If yesterday we spoke of 7000 people who attended the Circuit, today the amount was estimated in more than 20.000 people present.

Today has been a complete day.  It was possible to watch the three Formula One Spanish pilots in the racetrack: Fernando Alonso , Pedro Martinez de la Rosa and Jaime Alguersuari.  In addition, to the current champion, Jeson Button and Michael Schumacher who also rolled out.

The debuting racing cars start at 10 AM on the dot.  The single-seaters start to roll out and we see Fernando Alonso passing by with his new blue helmet (Asturias flag); he is ahead.  Nonetheless, the “first fright“ came with De la Rosa when unexplainably he stopped on his tracks, just when he was marking the best time.  The marshals showed a red flag.  Up to that moment, Fernando had just made one reconnaissance lap.

The march starts again and the pilots start to roll their cars.  Fernando Alonso makes the best time, stopping the chronometer at 1:12.160.  After that, he reduced his time on five consecutive laps.  Just as well it’s the first time he rolls with this car.  How many hours would he have made in the simulator?

Behind the pilot from Asturias, Schumacher marks his best score; he’s fourth in the time table and goes to boxes.  The difference between Alonso and Schumacher is of 1.007.  There was a morbid fascination in the racetrack.

Subsequent to his stop, Schumacher starts to lower his times.  De la Rosa still has the second best time; the BMW C29 is performing well.  It looks solid in the track.

In this moment, the current champion, Jeson Button appears.  He makes his official debut with McLaren.  During his first laps his times were far away from the best (1:18.420), six seconds behind the Spaniard.  The British is still in adaptation period with his new single-seater.

A great surprise comes when the pilot from Asturias improves the time achieved by Felipe Massa, yesterday.  The Brazilian made 1:11.722 and Alonso pulled off 1:11.709, in that same lap.  Schumacher also lowers his time, remaining at 7 tenths of the Spaniard, and Pedro marks a best lap, too  Aren’t this petty quarrels?

At any rate, the show was in the racetrack.  The F10 seems to please the pilot from Asturias, who in his first contact had the satisfaction of making a debut record, but subsequent to his return to the boxes he lowered again his best time.  When a little more of two hours of testing had elapsed, he stopped the chronometer at 1:11.599.

The third Spaniard in the racetrack, Jaime Alguersuari, rolled with consistent times all morning long.  He was ahead of Button, specifically, fourth place in the time table.  However, the most significant aspect is that his times are better than those of his team-mate, Sebastian Buemi.

The last stage of the morning session starts to stabilize.  Alonso starts to advance in 1:12 lows, a great rhythm.  While “Schumi” and De la Rosa follow him at half a second.  Everything seemed to indicate that the session would end in that monotony, but the pilot from Asturias returns with all his might; he wants to see the F10 potential and stopped the chronometer at 1:11.600.  We were all surprised, but a bit later, 3 minutes later, he makes 1:11.470; he lowers his time again.  Wasn’t it supposed to be his contact with the F10?

At 2 o’clock the time came to stop and have lunch.

Morning times:
1º. Fernando Alonso 1:11.470
2º. Pedro de la Rosa 1:12.094
3º. Michael Schumacher 1:12.438
4º. Jaime Alguersuari 1:12.576
5º. Jenson Button 1:13.783
6º. Nico Hulkenberg 1:14.410
7º. Vitaly Petrov 1:14.707

The second day of official tests in the Valencia Ricardo Tormo Circuit have started.  Today’s surprise was the attendance of ex-champion, Lewis Hamilton.  Climate conditions are better than Monday’s.   Massa and Kobayashi are leading the time table since early this morning, confirming yesterday’s good impression of the two single-seaters (Ferrari y Sauber).

The morning session started as yesterday’s, Massa runs through the racetrack and in a little while stops the chronometer at 1:12.393, near the best time he got yesterday (1:12.547).  After him, came Hamilton with 1:13.366.

After this first period, Massa starts to ‘exploit’ his Ferrari, stopping the time at 1:11.722, and pulverizing yesterday’s times.  The Brazilian pilot seems has adapted quite well to the F10.  However, a little bit later, Kobayashi goes up to the second place in the time table with 1:12: 384, with a scarce difference of 662 from Massa.  Yesterday’s story seems to repeat itself with the battle between Ferrari and Sauber.

Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) was the third fastest of the morning with a better lap of 1:12.508, even though, one who also improved yesterday’s time was Nico Rosberg with the Mercedes GP.  The German managed a better lap of 1:12.899, almost a second faster than the one he got on the first day.  Rubens Barrichello’s Williams (1:13.377), Kubica’s Renault (1:13.659) and the Swiss, Sebastien Buemi’s Toro Rosso (1:14. 826) were behind.  The latter was the only one who improved yesterday’s times.

Better conditions

The improvement of, both weather and the asphalt atmosphere conditions, as well as the quantity of rubber in the racetrack helped to lower the times.  All the ‘Scuderias’ tested the components and as yesterday, ran with different fuel amounts.

1. Massa (56 laps)
2. Kobayashi (29 laps)
3. Hamilton (48)
4. Rosberg (41)
5. Barichello (45)
6. Kubica (59)
7. Buemi (41)

The first Formula One pre-season tests are being challenged, since Monday in the Ricardo Tormo de Cheste Circuit in Valencia.

The Brazilian pilot, Felipe Massa started leading the time table at the wheel of the Ferrari ‘F10′ and in the middle of the morning marked a best time of 1:13.088, in a stint of 32 laps at the Valencian racetrack.

Massa, was the only one who lowered the times as he rolled through the Valencian Circuit to less than 1:14, giving evidence of good results with the new F10.  These were surprising times if we take into account the huge fuel tank that the car has installed in it.

In the last moments of the morning session, the Spaniard, Pedro Martinez de la Rosa (BMW Sauber) with a best lap of 1:13.247 -in spite of being the second pilot who ran less during the morning, with a total of 27-, placed himself in the second chrono time position.

Finally, Nico Rosberg with the Mercedes GP was third fastest in Cheste with 1:13.543, followed by the McLaren test pilot, Gary Paffet who stopped the chronometer in 1:14.018.

Rubens Barrichello (Williams) made it fifth with 1:14.449, while the two last places of the morning were for Kubica (Renault) with 1:15.298 and Sebastien Buemi (Toro Rosso) with a better time of 1:19.279, and who only ran 10 laps in the Valencian Circuit.