12/02/2010
NEWS STORY
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Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari topped the timesheets on the third day of testing as continuous rain from mid-morning onwards restricted running and compromised programmes.
The day got off to cold but dry start during which time the fastest laps were posted, however, it wasn't long before the rain which had been forecast finally arrived. Towards the end of the day, conditions became so bad that the session was abandoned with around 45 minutes still remaining
For Alguersuari, who was taking over from Sebastien Buemi, once his quick time had been posted and the rain began to fall it was a case of the Catalan driver getting his first taste of this year's rain tyres. Starting on intermediates, in the light drizzle that began to fall, before switching to extremes when the rain intensified.
The Spaniard completed long runs on both types of rain tyre: the car ran reliably and the driver made no mistakes in the tricky conditions. He continues driving tomorrow, for the final day of this test, when rain is once again likely to be the order of the day.
Pedro de la Rosa was at the wheel for Sauber, taking over from Kamui Kobayashi, the Spaniard completed 58 laps as the Swiss team continues to make progress.
"We stopped when the rain became too heavy as there was no need to risk anything," said Giampaolo Dall'Ara. "In the morning we skipped our usual installation lap and went straight into the programme. We managed to do a baseline run in the dry and later focused on balancing the car in the wet. We scanned different set-ups and worked on the brake system. Pedro's comments on the car were quite positive in the wet. Nevertheless we certainly hope for better and dry track conditions tomorrow."
Adrian Sutil took over the VJM03, his programme following on from Liuzzi's schedule of the previous two days, with systems checks, long runs and set-up evaluation. The heavy rain and frequent red flags compromised some of the schedule, however the German completed 48 laps before an electrical fault halted him on track around 90 minutes before the end of the session.
"This morning it was nice to have some dry running," said the German. "The car is good and I think it's a positive place to start. I'm very confident on the general speed of the car. Unfortunately the rain came in quite early and then it was really waiting for reasonable conditions to go out. We had a problem in the afternoon that caused us to miss a bit of track time, but considering it was so wet it would have been very difficult to get a lot of running in anyway. I'm pleased to at least have had some dry running and some more time in the car and am looking forward to getting started again tomorrow.
"Today's programme attempted to condense dry weather testing into the start of the day," added chief race engineer, Dominic Harlow, "and following the expected onset of rain at mid-morning we moved to aerodynamic testing. Some further new components were introduced successfully and the intermediate and then wet conditions allowed Adrian to look at tyre options for these conditions. We had an issue that resulted in some downtime in the afternoon, but with the weather worsening it didn't cost us much track time and that is what testing with a new car is about."
Felipe Massa was on duty for Ferrari, the Brazilian having his third day at the wheel of the F10. He was only able to complete around twenty laps on dry tyres before having to run only with rain tyres, both intermediates and extremes for the remainder of the day.
"It was a pity that we could drive just a bit on the dry," said the Brazilian "Due to the rain we had to change the programme a bit and we checked the car's behaviour and the tyres with this sort of track condition. I have to say that the F10 has confirmed to be a very well set up car; I'm very happy with the sensations I had today. Let's hope that the weather is better tomorrow so we can drive more and start working on the set up."
Sebastian Vettel drove the RB6 for the first time today, the German taking over from Mark Webber. After an initial run on dry tyres, he was forced to use intermediate and extremes for the remainder of the day. The team's plan had been to focus on aero-testing, but progress was hampered by the deteriorating weather. Despite the weather, the car ran without any problems.
"After three months, it was good to come back and drive the car - it felt okay and we didn't have any big issues," said Vettel. "Obviously the weather is not ideal for us to find out more about the car, but we knew the rain was coming so we didn't mess around this morning and went straight out to do some laps. It then rained all day, but you could face these conditions in a grand prix, so it's important to do laps in the wet. Overall, we didn't do enough because of the weather, but I'm pretty happy."
For Renault Vitaly Petrov completed 68 laps as he continued acclimatising to the R30 in the wet and completing some practice starts.
"In the morning we managed to do a bit of dry running and the car felt good and well balanced," said the Russian. "Then, when the rain arrived, we did quite a lot of work as it was important for me to understand how the car behaves in the wet conditions and the characteristics of the wet and intermediate Bridgestone tyres. That went well and we also did a lot of practice starts as I learn the procedures and systems on the car."
"Another very wet day," added Alan Permane, "but we managed to complete a couple of dry runs early this morning and Vitaly was pretty happy with the car. Then it started raining and remained wet for the rest of the day so we spent our time putting mileage on the engine and on some new parts. The wet conditions also gave Vitaly the chance to try both the wet and intermediate Bridgestone tyres and he seemed comfortable with both of them."
Nico Rosberg was back at the wheel for Mercedes though he had just one short run before the rain began to fall. Adapting the test programme for the wet conditions, the German evaluated the intermediate and wet tyres, alongside with race simulation exercises.
Conditions eventually became too wet by the late afternoon for any meaningful running and after a couple of practice starts and pit stops in the final thirty minutes, the team called an early end to the day, with Rosberg having completed 53 laps.
"It's unfortunate that it was once again a wet day today," said Rosberg, "but we still achieved some valuable testing working on our race weekend procedures such as pit stops and pit entries. The positive side is that I felt very much home in the car and could attack on the half lap that I did in the dry so that gives me confidence and a good feeling for the test days ahead."
"We basically only had a few laps in the dry this morning but then the rest of our running was done in the wet," said Rubens Barrichello, "so it was hard to find where the limit was and evaluate our performance. I'm looking forward to getting back in the car tomorrow and getting some more mileage in."
"We went straight into a race run on slick tyres in the morning as we knew we would only have a short window before the rain came," added Sam Michael. "After that, it was a wet programme for the rest of the day. We spent the session working on control strategies, systems checks, race starts and a couple of small set-up changes. We had no mechanical problems."
During the all too brief dry spell at the beginning of the day McLaren undertook a number of aero mapping runs. As the rain started falling, focus shifted towards evaluating the wet and intermediate compounds. The colder temperatures made progress difficult, particularly as extra attention needed to be paid to brake material choice in the cool conditions.
In the afternoon, Lewis Hamilton focused on a number of longer runs to understand how the tyres behaved, but the poor weather eventually became too much, even for the full-wet option.
For tomorrow, the team is hoping for dry running in order to give the English driver an opportunity to put miles on MP4-25 in more representative conditions.
As previously reported, Virgin suffered another miserable day with Lucas di Grassi only completing 8 laps.