03/03/2009
NEWS STORY
Following yesterday's rain, conditions were much improved for the eight teams in action at Jerez today. The rain showers that blighted Monday's session continued until shortly before the start of testing today but the sun appeared soon afterwards. The tarmac took two hours to dry out but after that there was dry running for the rest of the day.
For Toyota, Timo Glock spent the morning putting in a race simulation in the TF109. He completed the run without any problems in the changing conditions before moving on to set-up work, setting the day's fastest lap during a late qualifying simulation. Jarno Trulli is scheduled to take over for the next two days.
"That was a productive day," said Glock. "This morning we were again a bit unlucky with the conditions, which made the race simulation quite tough. But it was useful to find out when to change to slick tyres and our pace wasn't bad. Then we got some dry running for the rest of the day. We did a lot of set-up work and late on we did some shorter runs to make it through the programme. We've made it through a lot of miles over these two days and we're making useful progress."
"This morning's race simulation went very well," added Pascal Vasselon. "We just had to manage very transient weather and track conditions which brought us from full wet conditions at the beginning to slicks in the course of our race. Still, we went from wet tyres to slicks at exactly the right time and Timo made it through without major difficulty. All in all it was fun, interesting and valuable mileage for the car in realistic race conditions. Because we were ahead with our schedule we spent the afternoon doing some set-up work."
After rain prevented the planned use of Bridgestone's 2010 tyres yesterday, Ferrari was back on track this morning with Felipe Massa at the wheel of the F60.
The Brazilian immediately started with long runs, first with the heavy wet tyres, then with the standard wet tyres and in the end with those for a dry track. The 2008 runner-up had two minor difficulties today: going off at Turn 1 when the tarmac was still extremely wet, while later on there was a problem with the electronics and the technicians had to work on the car for a quite a while. Once the problem had been resolved Massa went back out and completed his programme without further interruptions, simulating a race with pit stops.
Just after 1pm a much welcome guest arrived in the Ferrari garage: Michael Schumacher. The seven-time world champion is here to follow the team's preparations for the upcoming season and will remain in Jerez until tomorrow.
Renault was keen to make the most of the dry and sunny conditions. And while initially the track was damp, by mid-morning conditions had improved enough to allow Fernando to get down to set-up work on slick tyres. The French team also evaluated some new developments while continuing to add mileage to the car.
"Today was a very productive day as I managed to complete 152 laps," said Alonso, "which gave us lots of useful data. At this stage of the season it's important to have as much time in the car as possible to get used to the new rules such as the moveable wings and the KERS system and so I'm happy to have done so much today. Everyday we keep learning new things and I'm feeling more and more comfortable in the car. Hopefully tomorrow we can have another dry day to build on the work we did today."
"The circuit was a bit wet to start off with and so we used the damp conditions just to put some miles on the car," added Christian Silk. "Fortunately the circuit dried out by the middle of the morning which allowed us to get on and do some good work to make up for some of the ground we lost in the wet yesterday. The car behaved very well and overall we're pleased with the results as we managed to achieve our objectives for the day."
The damp track early this morning, allowed McLaren to continue the wet-tyre evaluation programme it had begun yesterday. Heikki Kovalainen made good progress understanding Bridgestone's intermediate tyre before the drying track prompted a switch in focus for the afternoon. The MP4-24 was subsequently fitted with a 2009 front and rear wing package - for the first time in dry conditions - and the Finn carried out a series of set-up evaluation runs until the end of the day.
For Wednesday and Thursday, Lewis Hamilton takes over driving duties and continues the programme.
Adrian Sutil continued Force India's strong form. Today was the German's first full day with the new car following its initial shakedown last week in Silverstone. Sutil completed 63 laps and was a promising fifth quickest of the eight man field.
With drier weather finally arriving over the Andalusian track, the team was able to complete some set-up work, tyre comparison and also evaluate some test items, including the 'shark's fin' engine cover used from the mid point of last year. A driveshaft issue at the end of the morning led to some downtime, however progress resumed in the afternoon with Adrian completing short and mid-length runs.
"I think today was a good day," said Sutil. "It was important to get into the car again and to get confident. The car was OK; there is definitely potential, and we were able to do more mileage and find some reliability in the afternoon. In the morning we had a little problem but we could fix it over lunch and start to do our programme. The tyres dominate a lot and the different compounds react differently: you have to find a good set up and get them to work and that is where we are concentrated now. We had some instability on the rear and oversteer, but we will see tomorrow. We are at least more reliable and can try and get some real mileage on the car now."
"Adrian took over from Giancarlo today," added James Key, "the first time he had driven the car in anger following the shakedown last week. As a result it was a learning experience for both him and us in many respects. The day was OK, we had a bit of downtime with a driveshaft issue, which we have already corrected, but it was good to have dry conditions and see a little bit more of what the car and tyres are doing. We were finally able to do some set-up work and have more direction and data on the tyres, so it has been productive. We also had some test items that we will continue to evaluate tomorrow. Every run we are learning something new, and if it's as productive tomorrow as it was this afternoon we should be in for a very good day."
Mark Webber brought better weather with him, the Australian taking over from Sebastian Vettel today. On the programme for the Austrian team were race weekend simulations. All went reasonably to plan despite two minor interruptions.
For BMW, Robert Kubica concentrated on set-up work with the F1.09 running on wet tyres. After the lunch break the team continued its development programme on a dry track. The main focus was evaluating different solutions for the car's aerodynamics and set-up. Late in the afternoon Kubica stopped on the track after switching off the engine when a warning light came on. The reason was quickly traced to a faulty sensor, so minutes later the F1.09 was back on track completing a total of 98 laps over the day.
"Overall it was a good day," said the Pole, after completing his third day of testing. "We were able to make up some of the time we lost yesterday when rain meant we had to change our schedule. I started on extreme wet tyres, changed to wet tyres and finally drove slick tyres. Together with the various different set-up solutions I tried that helped me get an even better feeling for the car."
Propping up the timesheets was Nico Rosberg in the Williams FW31, the German completing 125 laps on his way to posting a best time 1.598s off Glock's pace.