2010 Formula 1 Pre-season testing

[Ed]

Thanks, Ed, for keeping us posted. Odd results on this second, slightly damp, day! Alonso in the lower half!! The Sauber/Ferrari almost stealing the day! the Merc's WAY DOWN.

must be they're all sand-bagging!

I wonder how tomorrow will go?

jim watt

I suspect that due to the poor weather predictions the teams are concentrating maximising the time for long runs rather than a quick time. Both Alonso and Schumacher completed long runs with heavy fuel loads to evaluate the tyres. Kobayashi set the fastest time in the final minute clearly on low fuel and to grab some headlines.

Rain is predicted on Friday!!

[Ed]

The third day of testing at Jerez has commenced. The track is dry and it isn't raining at the moment however rain is forecast for today.

The scheduled drivers for today are:

Hamilton - McLaren
Vettel - Red Bull
Rosberg - Mercedes
Massa - Ferrari
Petrov - Renault
de la Rosa - Sauber
Alguersuari - Toro Rosso
Barrichello - Williams
Sutil - Force India
di Grassi - Virgin

[Ed]

Just a few minutes into the session and de la Rosa has caused the first red flag of the day as he stops on the track

[Ed]

The session has resumed and Pedro de la Rosa is the fastest so far with a 1:21.101 followed by Massa and Vettel

[Ed]

Now Algueruari goes fastest with 1:20.288 as the teams try to maximise their dry running as rain continues to be a threat

[Ed]

One hour into the session and the fastest times are

Driver - Team - Best Lap time
Alguesuari - Toro Rosso - 1:19.919
de la Posa - Sauber - 1:20.736
Sutil - Force India - 1:21.428
Massa - Ferrari - 1:21.603
Vettel - Red Bull - 1:21.783
Petrov - Renault - 1:22.000
Rosberg - Mercedes - 1:22.820
Hamilton - McLaren - 1:23.985
Barrichello - Williams - 1:25.575

[Ed]

Rain is falling on the track now and the forecast is for rain throughout the day so fastest times are likely to remain as they are.

[Ed]

The track continues to be wet and rain is falling although not too heavy.

Rubens Barrichello spun off causing the second red flag of the day

[Ed]

The Virgin team has yet to send their car out. The team stopped testing yesterday after a front wing failure and they are awaiting spares.

[Ed]

3rd red flag of the day. This time it seems that Rosberg has caused the stoppage

[Ed]

After 5.5 hours into the session, it is still wet and the best laptimes remain from early in the session:

Driver - Team - Best Lap time
Alguesuari - Toro Rosso - 1:19.919
de la Posa - Sauber - 1:20.736
Sutil - Force India - 1:21.428
Massa - Ferrari - 1:21.603
Vettel - Red Bull - 1:21.783
Petrov - Renault - 1:22.000
Rosberg - Mercedes - 1:22.820
Barrichello - Williams - 1:23.817
Hamilton - McLaren - 1:23.985

[brawn2bwild]

Truly miserable weather here in the south of Spain, very uncharacteristic. To give you an idea of how unusual this is, we've been in a state of drought for quite some time, but so far this year we've had enough rain to give us reserves for the next 3 years! I reckon the teams are likely to go well at the British, Japanese and German GP's this year.

But how much useful data are they going to get for all the hot races? There's a big storm predicted for the area on Monday and it looks like it could be wet for testing next week too.

Brawn2bwild

[Ed]

Truly miserable weather here in the south of Spain, very uncharacteristic. To give you an idea of how unusual this is, we've been in a state of drought for quite some time, but so far this year we've had enough rain to give us reserves for the next 3 years! I reckon the teams are likely to go well at the British, Japanese and German GP's this year.

But how much useful data are they going to get for all the hot races? There's a big storm predicted for the area on Monday and it looks like it could be wet for testing next week too.

Brawn2bwild

Thanks for the update Brawn2bwild. So far 2 days out of three have been in the wet, lets hope Saturday will be dry. We may see some teams opt to go to Bahrain as the testing is very limited this year.

The session ended on Friday without any change to the fastest times. The rain got heavier as the day progressed. There was one additional stoppage when Sutil had an electrical problem.

The Virgin Racing team managed to get di Grassi out late in the day. He completed 8 laps.

Driver - Team - Best Lap time - Laps
Alguesuari - Toro Rosso - 1:19.919 - 76
de la Posa - Sauber - 1:20.736 - 58
Sutil - Force India - 1:21.428 - 48
Massa - Ferrari - 1:21.603 - 72
Vettel - Red Bull - 1:21.783 - 59
Petrov - Renault - 1:22.000 - 68
Rosberg - Mercedes - 1:22.820 - 53
Barrichello - Williams - 1:23.817 - 120
Hamilton - McLaren - 1:23.985 - 68
di Grassi - Virgin Racing - 1:37.107 - 8

[Ed]

Fourth day of testing at Jerez and the session started with a damp track but has been drying up through the morning and lap times continue to improve.

There was a red flag condition one hour into the session that was caused by Vettel.

Current fastest laptimes:

Driver - Team - Best Lap time
Barrichello - Williams - 1:22.319
Massa - Ferrari - 1:22.641
Kubica - Renault - 1:24.373
Vettel - Red Bull - 1:24.633
de la Rosa - Sauber - 1:25.039
Alguersuari - Toro Rosso - 1:25.756
Hamilton - McLaren - 1:26.023
Sutil - Force India - 1:27.606
Schumacher - Mercedes - 1:29.768

[Ed]

Red flag caused by Massa stopping on the track.

The car has been cleared and the session resumes