The second day of testing in Jerez was held under dry conditions with the predicted rain holding off. While the circuit was still damp first thing from yesterdays rain it quickly dried out and most of the teams were able to put put a good number of laps on their cars.
Jerez First Test - Day 2 of 4
| Position | Team | Driver | # Laps | Best Lap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BMW Sauber F1 | Kamui Kobayashi | 103 | 1:19.950 |
| 2 | Toro Rosso | Sebastien Buemi | 121 | 1:20.026 |
| 3 | McLaren | Jenson Button | 83 | 1:20.618 |
| 4 | Williams | Nico Hulkenberg | 67 | 1:20.629 |
| 5 | Force India | Tonio Liuzzi | 80 | 1:20.754 |
| 6 | Mercedes GPi | Michael Schumacher | 124 | 1:21.083 |
| 7 | Scuderia Ferrari | Fernando Alonso | 129 | 1:21.424 |
| 8 | Renault | Robert Kubica | 103 | 1:22.033 |
| 9 | Red Bull Racing | Mark Webber | 99 | 1:22.043 |
| 10 | Virgin Racing | Timo Glock | 11 | 1:29.964 |
The big exception was newcomer Virgin Racing who had another bad day with the front wing of the VR-01 falling off after only eleven laps. Apparently the team has identified the problem and point of failure but a lack of spare parts prevented continued testing today. The team is having parts flown in and expects to resume its testing program tomorrow.
Williams also had some mechanical issues which while identified quickly took a long time to fix as explained by Sam Michael, AT&T Williams Technical Director:
“We had some mechanical problems with the hydraulic system and the driveline 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.”
Kamui Kobayashi driving the BMW Sauber F1 C29 set the fastest lap of the test so far beating Sebastien Buemi in the Toro Rosso by the smallest of margins, 0.076 sec. The first of the big name driver/team combination Button/McLaren set third fastest time, with new boy Nico Hulkenberg in the williams setting fourth fastest time even with all the problems the team suffered today and Tonio Liuzzi coming in a close fifth, not a bad showing for Force India especially as it is only the second time on track for their new car.
