19/02/2010
NEWS STORY
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Thankfully the sun is finally shining in Jerez, allowing drivers to get in some dry running, indeed, Jenson Button is currently in the 21.4s. However, there were times when it looked as though heavy rain in the area might bring the test to an early end.
Leaving the Jerez media centre at 21:49 last night, Pitpass snapper Joanne Burnett wrote: "Going to attempt to swim to the car and sail off to dinner."
Unfortunately, things were actually worse than Joanne suggested. Due to the stormy weather, there was no electricity in the region at times last night and no cold running water.
Roads were completely flooded, including the local motorway, and some A-roads were totally impassable. The Williams crew - which left the track at 2 am - had to find an emergency hotel as they could neither get to the track nor to their own hotel once they'd left. Indeed, we hear one team member was stranded at the circuit all night.
This morning many of the roads were still impassable, with teams opting to split their crews up in an effort to find passable routes and thereby get somebody to the track.
In its efforts to get to the track, Cosworth went a good way to Seville and back as it searched for a passable route. Eventually it found a possible route in and - in true Bulldog spirit - decided to "go for it". What is normally a 15 minute journey took 90 minutes.
A massive effort and the flexibility of all the staff involved, meant that the teams fired up on time and left their garages at exactly 9 am.
Sterling work by all those involved.
To check out more pictures check out Page 15 of our gallery, here