Jerez testing, day four: Williams Rubens Barrichello finishes on a high – Formula 1 news
The Formula 1 pre-season test session in Jerez concluded on Sunday and Williams Rubens Barrichello finished on top of the table.
He posted a fastest time of 1 minute and 19.832 seconds while completing 103 laps. Rubens posted his time in the morning session before rain interrupted.
“We completed some long runs today and looked at trying some different things on the car,” said Barrichello. “This morning was also the first time we could run a few new sets of tyres and get some momentum.”
The fourth day was important in a way that it gave teams to check the Pirelli wet tyres for the first time as rain interfered in the afternoon session.
Behind Rubens was Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi who clocked a fastest of 1 minute and 20.601 seconds.
Fernando Alonso was third in his renamed F150th Italia with 115 laps, more than any other driver managed. Ferrari’s main concern was not to put the fastest time but rather test the car to the limits. Behind him in fourth position was Toro Rosso’s Sebastian
Buemi who tried different setups with his new STR6.
Fifth fastest was the man who has been seen as a replacement for injured Robert Kubica, Bruno Senna. He clocked a fastest lap time of 1 minute and 21.400 seconds. He was slower than Nick Heidfeld who topped the tables on Saturday testing with a time of 1
minute and 20.361 seconds.
Nick, with all his experience, will be a good substitute for Kubica but the decision is yet to be made and it will be interesting to see who will be selected among these two drivers.
Sixth was Lotus’ Heikki Kovalainen in his new T128. Following him was Nico Rosberg of Mercedes GP in seventh position. His outing was once again cut short when he was forced to pit due to a slight problem in his engine. He was out again in the afternoon
session and did some good mileage for the aerodynamic tests.
“Every lap is beneficial in pre-season testing and the work that we achieved today was good, however the long stoppage was unfortunate,” said the German.
Defending champion Sebastian Vettel clocked the eighth fastest time of 1 minute and 22.222 seconds. Ninth fastest was McLaren’s Jenson Button who managed 70 laps but the team called it a bad day as their data-gathering program was disturbed by the windy
conditions.
Virgin’s Jerome d’Ambrosio was tenth fastest. His outing was also cut short in the morning session when an engine problem forced him to pit as well.
Last was Force India’s Scot Paul di Resta who managed 99 laps and did a fastest time of 1 minute and 23.111 seconds.
He said, “We couldn't do our final run of the day when something broke on the front of the car and I skidded into the gravel. It was a shame and the team will look at it now, but until that point we were improving with each run.”
The teams will gather again in Barcelona on February 18, 2011 to do a final test on their packages before hitting the Bahrain circuit.
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