11/03/2009
NEWS STORY
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Jenson Button topped the timesheets at the Circuit de Catalunya today, posting the fastest time of the week thus far.
While some remain sceptical of the Brawn's pace, Flavio Briatore notably telling Gazzetta dello Sport, "If you have no sponsors for your car, you come here to make big lap times", others believe the Brackley team could produce some real surprises this season.
Button completed a full race distance complete with pit stops in the morning, followed by a qualifying simulation and various set-up evaluations in the afternoon. It was another highly successful day for the team and saw the Englishman complete an encouraging 130 laps. Rubens Barrichello will take over tomorrow to conclude the team's first test.
"It's been another great day and a very positive test generally," said Button. "It's so good to have achieved a full day's running, including a race distance, without any issues and it's fantastic that we clocked up so much mileage. After the challenges we have faced, to come here and get off to such an encouraging start is just what we all needed and I can't thank the team enough. All that effort has really paid off and everyone can feel very proud."
The day got off to a bad start for Felipe Massa, who took over from Kimi Raikkonen. The Brazilian went out on track just after 09:00, but had to stop by the side of the tack due to a hydraulic problem. The necessary repair work took over two hours and it was 12:10 before he was able to begin a race weekend simulation. Unfortunately the first part, the qualifying session, was not concluded because there wasn't enough time left after another car stopped on track.
The rest of the day went well for the Italian team however. After the lunch break Massa started the race simulation and completed it successfully, in contrast to Kimi Raikkonen's attempt yesterday. The Brazilian completed 109 laps, finishing 1.041s off the pace of what the Maranello outfit described as "the surprisingly fast Brawn GP of Jenson Button".
For BMW, Robert Kubica concentrated on several different race-related situations in order to fine tune the working relationship between him and his pit crew. He also worked on solutions for the set-up of the F1.09 on the mechanical and aero side of the car. As well as this, he tested different tyre options and, before the lunch break and after the end of the afternoon session, did a couple of practice starts.
"Today was very productive", said the Pole. "We tried various solutions we weren't able to complete last week in Jerez because of the unfortunate weather conditions. Obviously our main target today was to do a lot of evaluations for the forthcoming Australian Grand Prix."
Toyota had another busy day with Timo Glock taking over from Jarno Trulli. The German ran through a programme of aerodynamic evaluations, suspension and set-up, clocking up 132 laps despite some interruptions for red flags. He will return to the cockpit tomorrow for Toyota's last day of winter testing for the 2009 season.
"This morning started well," said Glock, "we made it through a lot of set-up and comparisons in the course of the day. We found some different directions and overall it was a productive session. Late on we had a slightly longer break so we couldn't quite finish our plan. But we should have enough data to investigate and make some positive steps for tomorrow."
"Today was a bit more difficult for us," said Dieter Gass. "We had a full programme of work on aero and set-up but in the end we had a few red flags and minor problems which slightly interrupted our programme. Still, we got through a lot of laps and it was another busy day for Timo. Tomorrow is our last day of winter testing so we will try to make the most of it. Then we can look forward to Melbourne where we hope to keep up our pre-season testing form."
Renault, which had Fernando Alonso on duty again, was able to make good progress with its technical programme which involved continuation of yesterday's set-up work. There was also further aero work, continuation of KERS development and some practice starts towards the end of the afternoon.
"It was another busy day for us," said the Spaniard, "working on the set-up of the car and trying lots of different things so that we are ready for the first race. We are trying to find more and more performance from the car and also did some work to prepare for the Spanish Grand Prix which will be at this circuit. We are happy with our performance, but we have to keep working hard because the times between all the teams are very close."
"We had a busy programme today and had a lot to get through," added Christian Silk, "but the car ran very well, with no reliability issues, which allowed us to complete our programme. The track conditions seem quite stable and the overcast conditions kept the track at a relatively constant temperature, which is always useful for testing. We continued with the set-up work we have been doing all week and also did some aero work. Overall we're making steady progress with the car and we are pleased with how our week is going."
Sebastian Vettel's was on duty for Red Bull and the German's programme focussed on two areas: set-up work with the RB5 aimed at the first few races of the season and general development of the car, evaluating some new components.
According to the team, this produced some positive results, with the only glitch of the day coming right at the very end of the session, when Vettel was "a bit optimistic going into Turn 4" and brought the car to an (undamaged) halt in the gravel trap.
Nico Rosberg took over from Kazuki Nakajima, the German continuing the Grove outfit's programme of set-up and development work on the FW31. Rosberg completed 89 laps on his way to posting the seventh best time of the day.
Giancarlo Fisichella took over the Force India VJM02 from Adrian Sutil, continuing the team's programme of evaluating different set-up options, aerodynamic improvements and tyre testing. Again the VJM02 demonstrated good reliability and the Italian was able to complete 97 laps in total with a best time of 1:21.545. Fisichella will conclude the test tomorrow, when a race weekend simulation is the overall target.
"We had some good reliability again today and could go through the programme as planned," said the Italian. "We did a lot of set up work, which we needed to do after the limited running in Jerez. I feel that the mechanical grip is good so we need to concentrate on the aero package now. I'm looking forward to the race simulation tomorrow where we can look at the performance over a longer run."
"Giancarlo was back in the car this afternoon and carried on the trends we saw yesterday with Adrian," added James Key. "We made some decent progress, some down to driver preference but others were genuine improvements, so it's been a very useful day. We completed some more work on tyres, comparing new and older sets, and began to unlock the difference between the compounds. We also tried some new aero parts, such as a tweak on the bodywork, a new rear wing and some parts around the front wing and the wheel spinners, which seemed to work as intended. Again the reliability was extremely good and we look forward to another productive day tomorrow."
After two difficult debut days for the STR4, today's session proved much more useful with the new car running reliably throughout and the problems of the first two days seemingly dealt with. For Sebastien Buemi, this was his first real time in the car, having done just a handful of in and out laps yesterday. The team made several adjustments to various elements such as pedals to ensure the Swiss driver is comfortable in his 'office'.
The team tackled a race simulation but ended two laps short of the full total, as the session was red flagged when another car went off the track, right at the end of the day.
The Faenza outfit is delighted with the fact that Buemi completed an impressive 145 laps today, more than anyone else, revealing that the Swiss driver is under strict orders to get plenty of sleep tonight.
Despite Ron Dennis' assurances that all is well with McLaren's 2009 preparations, it was another difficult day for the Woking team.
Fresh from his date at Buckingham Palace yesterday, where he received his MBE from The Queen, Lewis was back on duty today as he continues his preparations for the defence of his title.
The Englishman began the day working through a series of pitstop practices, while the rest of the morning was spent introducing him to the new aero package and setting up the car to his liking.
That work continued into the afternoon, with the team focusing on longer runs and additional pitstop practices. However, as previously reported, running was hampered by an off at Turn Two mid-afternoon. Hamilton lost the car at the exit of the corner and hit a tyre-barrier (above), which broke off a front-wing endplate and damaged the nose struts. After some repairs to the front-end, he was able to complete the remainder of the session, finishing tenth on the timesheets, 2.530s off Button's pace.