Renault continues to set the pace at Barcelona, with Giancarlo Fisichella and Fernando Alonso setting the fastest and third fastest times on the second day of testing at the Circuit de Catalunya.
Cold morning temperatures once again restricted the team to accumulating mileage early in the day, before both drivers began tyre testing for the opening races of the year. Both Fernando and Giancarlo experienced delays during the day, the former owing to an electrical problem while the latter suffered mechanical problems in the afternoon, but the tyre testing nevertheless yielded promising results on both short and long runs. The drivers also conducted familiarisation programmes for the new race weekend format.
"Difficult conditions first thing this morning meant we were unable to begin working on tyre development straight away," revealed Christian Silk, "but we continued running in order to put more miles on the new car. Both drivers conducted tyre testing for the first races of the year, which gave very promising results, as well as race weekend simulations to allow them to acclimatise to the revised format for this season. Overall, things seem very positive: the car is well balanced, the balance remains consistent on long runs and it is looking after its tyres well, which will hopefully mean the drivers are well equipped to continue attacking until the end of the races this year."
The French outfit revealed that it has extended its test here, and will now run on Friday 18.
Splitting the two Renaults was Ricardo Zonta in the TF104B, once again the Brazilian outpaced his teammate, Jarno Trulli, who was running the much-hyped latest-spec TF105. The Italian completed the most laps (122), underlining the car's reliability, however it's (apparent) lack of pace is sure to cause concern.
With Kimi Raikkonen back in Finland nursing a sore thumb, following yesterday's horrific crash, Juan Pablo Montoya was joined by Pedro de la Rosa.
The Colombian focussed on "durability and calibrating the car for Australia", completing 119 laps in total. This was Juan Pablo's last time in the MP4-20 before Melbourne.
The Woking mechanics did a magnificent job in getting Kimi Raikkonen's car repaired for de la Rosa, the Finn having damaged the front wing, left front corner, left side pod, left rear corner, and the rear crash structure.
The Spaniard finally took to the track at 13:35, after which he focussed on calibrating the car for the forthcoming Australian Grand Prix.
"Today has been a productive day with the focus on the forthcoming Australian Grand Prix," said Juan Pablo. "The next time I will drive MP4-20 will be in Melbourne, my first Grand Prix for Team McLaren Mercedes which I am really looking forward to."
"The mechanics have worked through the night and throughout this morning in order to repair the car so I could test today," added Pedro. "They have done a fantastic job and although Kimi was unable to be here today, I have continued with the planned testing programme."
The Spaniard will continue at the circuit tomorrow for the final day of this weeks test for the Woking team.
Red Bull drivers, David Coulthard and Christian Klien, were fourth and fifth quickest, split by 0.301s. Between them the Red Bull duo completed 196 laps.
The WilliamsF1 team continues to disappoint, with both Mark Webber and Nick Heidfeld over 1.4s off the pace. Both drivers worked on set-ups, while Mark also evaluated various tyre constructions and Nick worked on tyre compounds.
Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello continued with Ferrari's preparations. The German carried out a race simulation, while Rubens concentrated on set-ups and on development of the Bridgestone tyres.
Propping up the timesheets were the two Jordans of Narain Karthikeyan and Tiago Monteiro, though they were closer to the pace than on Tuesday.
"It was a good day and among other things we spent time updating Tiago's car to EJ15 specification, so he got some runs in the afternoon with the latest specification," said Trevor Carlin. "Narain improved his time, he did a 1:19.2 and was working through some more of Bridgestone's tyre test programme. Tiago's best time was 1:19.7 so we are making progress all the time and it's going quite positively at the moment."
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