Jerez Testing Session: Day 2 – Michael Schumacher back to winning ways
Michael Schumacher ended day 2 of pre-season Formula 1 testing in Jerez head and shoulders above the rest of the pack.
The seven-time World Champion made a rather quiet return to the motorsport last term after announcing his retirement at the end of the 2006 Formula One season. After dominating and ultimately monopolising the sport, hand in hand with Ferrari, the German
driver opted to choose his old buddy and race engineer Ross Brawn, rather than his old team, and opted to race with the Mercedes team.
While the veteran could be a victim of ridiculously high hype and tall expectations last season, Schumi has gotten back to winning ways in pre-season practice and is ready to make his mark on the 2011 ‘competitive’ Formula One season.
The Mercedes driver set a whopping 1 minute 20.352-second lap and topped the timesheet ahead of the Ferraris that had dominated the weekend after leading the standings on Thursday. Their Brazilian driver, Felipe Massa, was just behind as he finished a tenth
of a second down to the 42 year old.
Turning our attention to the rest of the pack, the McLaren Mercedes of Jenson Button finished a strong third with a lap time of 1 minute 21.009 seconds. However, the Mclarens are still understood to improve as the pre-season testing progresses as it is
still relatively early days for the MP4-26 that is understood to be miles ahead of their previous model and thereby would take time getting used to.
Toro Rosso continued their ‘competitive’ streak to pre-season practice as Jamie Alguersuari finished fourth. However, it wasn’t entirely a walk in the park for the Spaniard who spun out on turn 9 that triggered the red flags at one stage.
Red Bull opted for a much conservative approach; focused on getting a feel of the track rather than driving the wheels off the car to showboat its speed over the course of a lap. Mark Webber finished 5th with a 1 minute 21.613 second to his credit.
Adrian Sutil in his Force India, Sauber’s Sergio Perez finished sixth and seventh respectively while Virgin Racing’s Timo Glock, Lotus Renault’s Vitaly Petrov and Williams' Pastor Maldonado rounded off the top 10.
Focusing on Michael Schumacher-while the pessimists saw the veteran as the old dog that could no longer do tricks, the seven-time Formula One champion silenced all his critics by letting his Mercedes do the talking on the track. However, one would still
be naive to assume pre-season testing as a yardstick to the competitive 20-race Formula One season.
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