Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi has set the fastest lap of the day today, on day two of testing at the Circuit de Jerez in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain. The Sauber driver set a fastest lap of a 1:19.950 from 103 laps in the C29, on what was a much improved day weather-wise. Pedro de la Rosa will take over testing duties tomorrow for the team.
Giampaolo Dall’Ara, Sauber’s Head of Track Engineering said:
“It was a good day of testing as we managed to complete our programme. In the morning we did some aero tests. After the lunch break we concentrated on set-up and tyre evaluation. For most of the day we were running with a high fuel load prior to a run with a lighter car before the end of the session. For tomorrow the weather forecast is not really promising, but we will cope with what we get.”
Giampaolo Dall’Ara
Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi went second fastest with a 1:20.026 from 121 laps. He was pleased with his two days of testing:
“I am pleased with how the past two days have gone and although rain is never ideal, yesterday’s damp conditions meant we could try the wet weather tyres. Today, in the dry, we were able to do a lot of laps, as the car ran reliably. We tried various set-ups and ran with different fuel loads, so we are beginning to get a better understanding of STR5 in general.”
Sebastien Buemi
Jaime Alguersuari will test the Toro Rosso tomorrow.
Jenson Button was third in the McLaren ahead of William’s Nico Hulkenberg, who only completed 67 laps due to problems with his FW32. William’s technical director Sam Michael explained:
“We had some mechanical problems with the hydraulic system and the drive line today. We had a leak first thing this morning, which we identified relatively quickly, but it took us a long time to correct because the clutch was covered with hydraulic fluid. That effectively ruled us out of most of the morning session.
“We encountered a smaller issue this afternoon with a driveshaft component. It was quicker to rectify, but obviously wasn’t ideal in terms of track time. We still made our way through three or four set-up changes and we’ll just have to target higher mileage tomorrow with Rubens (Barrichello).”
Sam Michael
5th was Vitantonio Liuzzi in the Force India, ahead of Michael Schumacher in 6th. Schumacher completed 124 laps with a fastest time of a 1:21.083. The German was happy with the day’s work:
“I am very happy with how the day went today even if we could not finish our schedule completely due to red flags,” said the German. “However I managed to complete a lot of laps which is very precious to me. A new car, a new team and new conditions, therefore our first goal has to be to make the car reliable. Days like today help massively in that respect, especially as the weather forecast for the next few days isn’t looking quite so rosy. I felt very comfortable driving the car and it was good fun today.”
Michael Schumacher
Fernando Alonso completed 129 laps with a fastest of a 1:21.424 in the F10.
Robert Kubica was eighth in the Renault on a day where the French team worked on car setup, as explained by Renault chief engineer Alan Permane:
“Another very productive day as we completed over 100 laps and did a lot of set-up work with the car. We had made a lot of changes for Robert since the last test in Valencia and he’s now much more comfortable and happier in the car. We steadily improved the balance and grip throughout the day and hopefully we can continue with this tomorrow if the rain holds off.”
Mark Webber was 9th and Virgin Racing’s Timo Glock last with a 1:29.964, but only completed 11 laps due to his front wing falling off!
Results
1. Kamui Kobayashi, BMW Sauber, 1:19.950, 103 Laps
2. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso, 1:20.026, 121 Laps
3. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1:20.618, 83 Laps
4. Nico Hulkenberg, Williams, 1:20.629, 67 Laps
5. Vitantonio Liuzzi, Force India, 1:20.754, 80 Laps
6. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes GP, 1:21.083, 124 Laps
7. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, 1:21.424, 129 Laps
8. Robert Kubica, Renault, 1:22.003, 103 Laps
9. Mark Webber, Red Bull, 1:22.043, 99 Laps
10. Timo Glock, Virgin, 1:29.964, 11 Laps
Gallery
Images (C) Red Bull/Getty Images, Mercedes GP, Renault/LAT
I told you Kobayashi was gonna be good ! People had better watch out for him in 2010
No doubt Kobayashi is a very good driver. We saw that last year with his famous Button scrap, an awsome drive! But not sure about Saubers real pace yet, would love to see it become another Brawn-style fairytale for that team, but they just keep going out and doing these short stints with next to no fuel in order to top the times on a day when most teams are concentrating on setup and race distance simulations. I really hope they can turn their test-pace into good race-pace though. Would be great to see!