09/07/2008
NEWS STORY
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Lewis Hamilton continues to set the pace at Hockenheim, on a day which was overcast with a few drops of rain in the morning, cloudy with bursts of sunshine in the afternoon.
In its quest to close the gap in the Constructors' Championship, and to assist Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen in the Drivers' Championship, the Woking teams continues to evaluate new aero devices. While the engine cover dorsal fin was not used today, Hamilton did spent the morning trying a new front wing. The Englishman also spent times on set-ups on his way to posting a best time of 1:14.872, over 06.s up on yesterday's best. Tomorrow, Heikki Kovalainen is in action for the Woking team.
As Williams announces that it is to concentrate on its 2008 car in an effort to turn around the recent lack of form, the Grove outfit will take comfort from the fact that Nico Rosberg was second quickest here today. Although the German was 0.385s off Hamilton's pace, he completed more laps (117) than any other driver.
Kimi Raikkonen on duty again for Ferrari, the World Champion continuing with work on finding the best set-up for the F2008, as well as development of various aerodynamic and mechanical solutions.
"I am reasonably satisfied with the way things went during these two days," said the Finn at the end of today's programme. "We mainly tried to find settings for the car which will allow us to be in good shape for the Grand Prix.
"I think we will be competitive on this track, as indeed we have been for the year so far," he added. "The speed isn't lacking, but sometimes, we haven't managed to put together all the elements and have not succeeded in exploiting all the potential at our disposal."
Tomorrow, Felipe Massa is in action for the Italian team, while Raikkonen will be in Brussels, taking part in the European Youth Conference on Road Safety, which takes place at the headquarters of the European Commission at the Berlaymont Building.
It was a case of one car and two drivers today for Red Bull, as David Coulthard ran for the first three hours up to the lunch break, after which Mark Webber took over cockpit duties. The Scot concentrated on race preparation for the German Grand Prix, evaluating the two types of dry weather tyre that will be available, while his Australian teammate focused more on long term work on mechanical development items, as well as completing a couple of aero tests. Webber also did a tyre comparison on long runs.
"It was a productive day which produced some unexpected and interesting results," said the Australian, who will continue here tomorrow, the final day of the test.
It was another good day for Force India as Adrian Sutil remained on duty. The German, who was fourth quickest on Tuesday, continued to make progress, with his best lap being the 5th quickest of the day, just 1.073s off Hamilton's pace.
Sutil was able to complete 97 laps as he worked through a programme of suspension, set-up and tyre comparison work. A technical problem late morning proved to be the only major issue of the day, allowing the team to finish its scheduled plan. Giancarlo Fisichella will take over for the final day of the test tomorrow.
"It was a good day," said Sutil, "and we were able to test several items. In the morning we had an issue with the engine and lost some time, and again the windy conditions made things difficult, but in the afternoon the balance came back. It was getting better and better and we could do some good lap times, so I was quite happy. At the end of the day we also tried a different evolution of suspension set-up, so we're getting some good experience with the new parts. We can still improve a lot, there is more potential in the car, so overall it looks quite positive for the race weekend."
"This morning our programme included work on suspension and set-up for the race," added Dominic Harlow. We had a technical problem mid morning that halted our running for some time, but the team did a good job to get the car ready just before the lunchtime break so we could participate in the practice starts at the end of the morning. We continued our aero development programme in the afternoon, trying the wheel spinners we used for the first time in the Silverstone test two weeks ago, and evaluated the tyre compounds available for the race. The feedback was generally positive and, despite the setback in the morning and the gusty winds that still caused some problems, we were able to complete the scheduled programme."
Like its 'sister' team, Red Bull, Toro Rosso also had two drivers on duty, with half a day each in the cockpit for Vettel and Bourdais. The Frenchman carried on from where he left off on Tuesday, before Vettel took over in the afternoon. Both men had similar programmes, centred on general set-up work, car balance and tyre comparison. Bourdais' cockpit time was reduced after he went off the track at Turn 12, which meant the car spent some time in the garage being repaired and he did not complete a full tyre comparison. However, Vettel obtained all the data necessary when it was his turn and he continues driving tomorrow.
Toyota continued its programme with Timo Glock taking over from Kamui Kobayashi. Glock, who was brought up just 45 minutes away from the track, is preparing for his first-ever German Grand Prix and took the opportunity to carry out some Hockenheim-specific testing. He completed a lengthy programme of aerodynamic and mechanical work, completing a mammoth 114 laps in the process. Jarno Trulli will conclude the team's programme tomorrow.
"It was a good, solid day," said Glock. "We got through a lot of work. The weather was kinder than Kamui had yesterday and we did more than 100 laps with no mechanical problems. I was able to do some aerodynamic evaluations in the morning and then did some brake and tyre comparisons in the afternoon. We worked towards a base set-up rather than fine-tuning and I'm hoping to have a strong race in front of my home supporters next weekend."
"We had a very productive day," added Dieter Gass. "We had a number of different front wing configurations to test, which took us most of the morning, and are quite happy with the results we have seen. In the afternoon we concentrated more on Hockenheim-specific preparation for Timo instead of doing the normal development work. We evaluated downforce levels and tyres as we had the two compounds available which we will have at the race weekend."
For Renault, Fernando Alonso covered a total of 106 laps as he concentrated on preparation for next week's race. That centred around improving the car's set-up, aero work, and some brake testing to find the optimum solution for a circuit that is particularly demanding on the brakes. The Spaniard remains in the R28 tomorrow when the team will complete a final day of work before returning here next week.
"It's been a good day and we completed a lot of laps which has given us some useful information for the race next week," said Alonso. "The track conditions were good, it remained dry and because it was cloudy, we had a constant track temperature, which is always useful for testing. So we have made some progress with the car, but there is still more work to do tomorrow."
"It's been a productive day," added Christian Silk, "and we managed to complete most of our programme. Fernando was pretty happy with the car straight way, and the car seems quite nicely balanced around this circuit. We did some brake testing this morning and then focussed on chassis work, suspension set-up work, and a little bit of aero testing, which has given us some interesting results."
Ninth quickest was Silverstone hero Rubens Barrichello, who completed 90 laps on the way to posting a best time 1.272s off Hamilton's pace.
Joining Barrichello at the wrong end of the timesheets was another Silverstone here, BMW's Nick Heidfeld. The German continued his preparation for next week's Grand Prix by focussing on the mechanical and aerodynamical setup of the F1.08. He also concentrated on tyre testing collecting valuable data on the two compounds (medium and hard) nominated for the race.
There were just three red-flags, Sutil, Barrichello and Alonso being the culprits.