Ferrari driver Felipe Massa owns day one of pre-season testing in Jerez – Formula 1 news
Formula 1 world moves to Jerez test session where Felipe Massa of Ferrari set the fastest lap of the day with 1 minute and 20.709 seconds while completing 101 laps.
11 teams joined the testing session and all of them tested their new cars. Three cars made their debut in Jerez which were Force India’s VJM-04, McLaren’s MP4-26 and Virgin’s MVR-02. These teams used 2010 chassis in the Valencia test.
The only team which did not join the testing session was Hispania Racing Team who skipped the session as their car is in still developing stage. HRT will be joining the Bahrain pre race tests.
Robert Kubica, who injured himself in a crash, missed the testing as expected and was missed by every driver on the grid, as all the cars had a message wishing him good luck.
The stickers on the cars stated, “Szybkiego powrotu do zdrowia Robert,” which in English means “Get better soon Robert.”
Behind Massa was Sauber’s Sergio Perez with a time of 1 minute and 21.483 seconds while completing 94 laps in his new C30. Sergio said, “We covered a good mileage today and again I learnt a lot. I’m looking forward to another busy day tomorrow.”
Mark Weber followed in third position in his RB7 with his fastest time of 1 minute and 21.522 seconds. Their main focus of the day was to check the car for adjustments for Webber.
Fourth was surprisingly Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo who only completed 31 laps and a fastest of 1 minute and 21.755 seconds. He teammate Jaime Alguersuari took the car in afternoon session and finished sixth just behind Lewis Hamilton.
Hamilton gave MP4-26 its track debut and finished in fifth place while putting a fastest of 1 minute and 21.914 seconds. He said, “Today was mainly about checking the car - not the most exciting day, but it was important to make sure everything was running
okay.”
Behind him was Force India’s Adrian Sutil who also gave VJM-04 its track debut and finished seventh behind Jamie Alguersuari.
Renault’s Vitaly Petrov finished eighth in new R31. He will hand over the car to Nick Heidfeld on Saturday to check his performance as well as he is possibly the substitute of injured Kubica.
Ninth was Mercedes Nico Rosberg whose run was again cut short to 67 laps when his car faced the same hydraulic failure as in Valencia.
Tenth was Team Lotus’ Jarno Trulli who completed 54 laps with a best of 1 minute and 24.458 seconds.
Behind him was Virgin’s MVR-02. Timo Glock gave the car its first taste of the track and finished in 11th.
Last and 12th driver was William’s Pastor Maldonado who only managed 14 laps on the track and his fastest time was 14 seconds slower than Massa as his car faced a hydraulic problem.
The testing session will continue on Friday as well.
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