Nico Hulkenberg driving the Williams FW32 for the last time before the Bahrain Grand Prix season opener, narrowly claimed top slot over Fenando Alonso’s Ferrari, after Alonso spun his car off tack causing a red flag that prematurely ended the second day of the Barcelona test session.
Barcelona Final Pre Season Test - Day 2 of 4
| Position | Team | Driver | # Laps | Best Lap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Williams | Nico Hulkenberg | 99 | 1:20.614 |
| 2 | Ferrari | Fernando Alonso | 134 | 1:20.637 |
| 3 | BMW Sauber F1 | Pedro De La Rosa | 114 | 1:20.973 |
| 4 | Force India | Tonio Liuzzi | 90 | 1:21.056 |
| 5 | Red Bull Racing | Sebastian Vettel | 125 | 1:21.258 |
| 6 | Toro Rosso | Jamie Alguersuari | 104 | 1:21.571 |
| 7 | Mercedes GP | Michael Schumacher | 85 | 1:21.689 |
| 8 | McLaren | Lewis Hamilton | 93 | 1:22.152 |
| 9 | Renault F1 | Robert Kubica | 53 | 1:24.912 |
| 10 | Lotus Racing | Jarno Trulli | 70 | 1:25.524 |
| 12 | Virgin Racing | Timo Glock | 52 | 1:25.942 |
Commenting on Hulkenbergs performance Sam Michael, AT&T Williams F1 Technical Director:
“Nico finished his last day of winter testing today with a good run of laps. Our programme included the evaluation of a new sidepod, starts practice and some additional work on the set-up of the FW32. We’re making progress, but there’s still plenty to do”
Hulkenberg was also pleased with his performance but played down the speed of the FW32:
We’ve had a good test here. P1 today is nice but means nothing, to be honest. We’re not in Bahrain yet! It’s positive for the team, and for me, to know what the car can do though. We did a lot of set-up work today and have found some interesting things so I feel ready and confident to go to Bahrain now.
The bottom two slots of the time sheets contained the usual occupants Lotus Racing and Virgin Racing although this time, with Jarno Trulli driving, the Lotus was faster than Virgin Racings VR-01. Overall the team was pleased with the progress they made today, Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne giving his end of day round up explained:
“It was a productive day in terms of set up direction with Jarno. We were able to identify some problems with the set up in the car and establish clear direction to improve it. We still have a long way to go, and a lot of time to come from the car.
We had a couple of minor hydraulics issues which stopped the car on track, but nothing major, so all in all it was a productive day and we’re aiming to continue in the same vein tomorrow.”
Lotus managed the third fewest number of laps today with Virgin, delayed by lack of parts on hand to rebuild the car after Lucas Di Grassi’s crash yesterday completed the fewest number of laps of any team with only 52 on the board at the end of the session.
Renault also struggled today with suspension issues which limited track time and affected the pace of Robert Kubica, explaing the situation Kubica commented:
“It’s frustrating to lose track time this afternoon because of a problem with the suspension, but I’m sure the team will get on top of the issue so that we can have a good weekend. We have some new aero parts coming for the car on Saturday and Sunday, which will help improve the pace of the car.”
Trulli and Kubica will remain in their cars tomorrow so it will be interesting to see what level of improvement will be attained.
