28/02/2007
NEWS STORY
For the second successive day, Ferrari's Felipe Massa has topped the timesheets at Sakhir, outpacing McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and Maranello teammate Kimi Raikkonen.
On the penultimate day of pre-season testing the Brazilian, using the new aero package used by Raikkonen on Tuesday, completed 100 laps on his way to posting a best time over 0.5s faster than anyone else.
Both Massa and Raikkonen ran their engines to the end of their duty cycle, the equivalent of two race weekends. Both drivers continue here tomorrow.
Other than Hamilton, McLaren had Pedro de la Rosa on duty, with fellow Spaniard Fernando Alonso watching much of the action from the pit-wall. The English driver lost track time in the morning with what is understood to be a hydraulic problem, however, by the end of the day he had completed 55 laps, one of them good enough for second spot on the timesheets.
After a disrupted first day of testing following Heikki Kovalainen's accident, Renault's efforts were split between repairing the damaged chassis and pursuing its development programme. By the end of the day, both goals had been reached, with a total of 136 laps completed - equating to over two full race distances.
Giancarlo Fisichella's second day of testing aimed to build upon the programme he began yesterday. His work focused on handling work, with several relatively long runs during the later part of the morning session, before conducting set-up and tyre testing in the second part of the day. The Italian once again made encouraging progress, and finished the day fourth fastest.
Heikki Kovalainen did not begin running until after lunch, as repairs to his car (chassis R27-03) were completed. The technical team performed miracles having to completely rebuild the car overnight, and the Finn commenced his programme at 13:30 local time. Following an installation lap and systems checks, the Finn was able to work on set-up solutions. In spite of his limited mileage, he finished the day 6th fastest.
"I was pleased to be able to get back out on track this afternoon," admitted Kovalainen. "The mechanics have done a fantastic job to repair the car so quickly, and a big thank you to the team for their efforts.
"It was important to run again today," he added, "and I was focused on getting the jobs done we needed to, to minimise the amount of lost time. We got some interesting results this afternoon, and now we need to make the most of our final day in order to wrap things up before Melbourne."
"I did lots of laps today," added Fisichella, "and that meant we made some good progress with the programme. I think we got some good results on the long runs as well as our performance work, so I am quite pleased. We will try and build on this work tomorrow during the final day of pre-season testing. It will be an important day."
"We made some good progress with our programme today," said Christian silk, "which was primarily focused on set-up testing. Giancarlo found some very encouraging solutions, and it looks quite encouraging. They confirm the choices we have made in recent weeks, and confirm that we have made some good progress in our understanding of the tyres and the car's handling.
"Heikki was able to get back out on track once the car had been repaired, which was positive," he added. "The team did a sterling job to get the car ready, Heikki was comfortable straight away, and pleased with the progress he made. All in all, it was a very positive day."
It was a mixed day for BMW, for though Nick Heidfeld had a relatively trouble-free day and completed his scheduled programme, which involved testing mechanical set-ups. Robert Kubica's programme was hampered by two stoppages, both down to hydraulics.
In the afternoon the team was able to complete its scheduled programme and concentrated on optimizing mechanical set-up on both cars and carried out some tyre comparisons
Both drivers will continue here tomorrow, doing final systems checks for the season opener in Melbourne. They will also carry out the final confirmation of the cooling system as the highest ambient temperature of the entire pre-season testing is expected in Bahrain tomorrow.
Honda had its two race drivers back on duty, with Jenson Button proving to be the quicker of the two, albeit 1.65s off Massa's pace.
Both drivers did some early set-up laps to acclimatise to the car and the track conditions. The Englishman then worked through an aero programme alongside suspension evaluations while his Brazilian teammate spent the day working through general chassis set-up work and a further aero programme.
Most of the really fast laps were set in the morning, with few drivers improving in the afternoon, and this was certainly the case for Tonio Liuzzi, who, having been eighth quickest before lunch, had only dropped one place by the close of play. The Italian but was forced to sit the afternoon session following an unspecified technical problem.
“In the morning everything was fine," said the Italian, "then we had a problem with the car and I couldn't drive in the afternoon. It's a shame as I did only 47 laps and it's important for us to get a lot of kilometres here in preparation for the GP. Tomorrow Scott is driving, so I'll do some training - probably cycling or running...”
Takuma Sato, and indeed Super Aguri, will be delighted to have out-paced both Red Bull and Toyota, and this before the Japanese team gets its hands on the RA106, Formula One's answer to recycling.
The Japanese driver continued gathering data, even though he was feeling unwell as result of having a dose of the flu. The team tried various scenarios relevant to the circuit at Melbourne, while engine mileage was completed for Honda. Unfortunately a mechanical issue cost the team 30 minutes running time at the end of the day.
As previously reported, Ralf Schumacher was back in action alongside Jarno Trulli. The German recovered from his sore back following a rest yesterday afternoon and he returned to join Jarno in trying out different set-ups and gathering information from the new aerodynamic package.
Several red flags early in the morning limited running and the Italian's progress was disrupted further when a gearbox issue caused him to spin, bringing out the red flags once again. Throttle control and gearbox trouble cost him further time in the afternoon but Schumacher was able to make good progress and completed well over a race distance before clutch repairs ended his session an hour early.
Schumacher will resume his programme tomorrow for the final day of the test, with Franck Montagny replacing Trulli.
“Today was the hardest day of the test for me," admitted the Italian. "I had gearbox issues and an engine problem so I could not do much proper running. We have one more test before the start of the season so hopefully we can make improvements. There are some issues that we need to fix but obviously that is what testing is for and I remain confident.”
“Jarno went through quite a lot of problems," admitted Pascal Vasselon, "and we are not really happy with the reliability record on his car today. Still, despite this lack of running, his programme has been very fruitful. It has been useful in terms of results and they have been interesting. Ralf had much better conditions but at the end of the session he had an issue with the clutch which forced him to stop early. Overall he had a good day which went smoothly and brought us some very interesting results.”
“It was particularly good to get a lot of laps in today because of what happened yesterday, when I didn’t test in the afternoon," added Schumacher. "My back is fine and I was able to do more than a normal Grand Prix distance without any real trouble. Now I hope to end our test here with a positive day tomorrow.”
Red Bull had David Coulthard and Mark Webber on duty, both drivers over 2.5s off the pace and only kept off the bottom of the timesheets by Trulli.
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