10th February: Testing results

Nico Rosberg topped the timesheets today, in a rain-soaked session.

The Mercedes driver clocked in a fastest lap of 1:20.927, which was set in the morning, before the rain came out. Timo Glock was the only driver who was completely caught out by this, and could only set 5 laps, at a point where the track was at its wettest. His time was a 1:38.734.

Sebastien Buemi was second fastest (1:21.031), followed by Nico Hulkenberg for Williams (1:22.243). The other drivers, in order, were Fernando Alonso, Kamui Kobayashi, Jenson Button, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Vitaly Petrov, Mark Webber, and Glock.

Mark Webber was the first to bring out the red flags, when he stopped out on track half an hour after the session had started at 9 in the morning. It was described as a “simple component failure”, which later turned out to be an oil leak. However, the fault meant that the engine had to be changed, which stopped him running until 4.45 pm. Then, he only got 3 laps after that, when Rosberg stopped out on track, bringing out the red falgs and ending the session.

Nico Rosberg attributed his fastest lap to a better seating position in the car:

“The car felt very good today,” he said. “Compared to Valencia where I was sitting too low which affected my visibility and the set-up wasn’t perfect, today I felt really comfortable and I could push so it was an enjoyable day and a good start to the test for me.”

The times are as follows:

	Driver	Driver	Team	Car	Fastest lap	Difference	# of laps
1.		N. Rosberg	Mercedes	W01	1.20.927		57
2.		S. Buemi	Toro Rosso	STR5	1.21.031	+0.104	84
3.		N. Hulkenberg	Williams	FW32	1.22.243	+1.136	118
4.		F. Alonso	Ferrari	F10	1.22.895	+1.968	88
5.		K. Kobayashi	BMW Sauber	C25	1.23.287	+2.360	55
6.		J. Button	McLaren	MP4-25	1.24.947	+4.020	68
7.		V. Liuzzi	Force India	VJM03	1.24.968	+4.041	71
8. 9. 10.		V. Petrov M. Webber T. Glock	Renault Red Bull Virgin	R30 RB6 VR-01	1.25.440 1.26.502 1.38.734	+4.513 +5.575 +17.807	27 50 5

Pictures from the test: