Michael Schumacher wipes away concerns over his form
The seven-time Formula 1 World Champion Michael Schumacher has wiped away all concerns over his form by clocking the fastest lap time on day two of Jerez pre-season testing.
The former Ferrari man recorded an astonishing time of 1:20.352, and beat his former teammate Felipe Massa by 0.0061 seconds. Jenson Button, another former world champion had a slow start to the day, but later improved and ended as third fastest on the day in his new McLaren. Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari was fourth and Red Bull's Mark Webber came in fifth quickest.
This was the first time that new McLaren car had faced up against rival teams. Jenson Button said it was a good first test for his new car. He said he would like to push the car further to see what it has to offer.
Button was running checks on his new car for most of the morning session, but as the day went on, he got quicker and quicker. Button set the time of 1:21.009 that was 0.657seconds adrift of Schumacher’s fastest.
Button will hand the car back to Lewis Hamilton for the testing Saturday, and will come back to try it out once more on the final day of testing Sunday. Button said that, in the morning, he was trying to fit into the car, and was trying out the KERS energy storage and power-boost system.
The 2009 champion said he felt more comfortable with the car as the day came to an end. He said it was good to try out something at first. And in the end, he was very happy with the progress of the car.
The Brit said the experiment with the new Pirelli tyres was also quite good. He added that they give them an edge in degradation and durability.
Mark Webber, who was a serious contender for the title last season, was the one quickest in early part of the testing. But Michael Schumacher beat his time by 0.204 seconds by clocking a lap of 1:21.408 seconds.
Even though Schumacher was quickest on the day, he was still not able to beat the quickest time set by Felipe Massa Thursday. Schumacher’s lap time was 0.7 seconds slower than the Brazilian’s.
Michael was not much impressed by the car on first day, and talking to BBC, he had said that getting to the podium in initial part of the season would not be easy for Mercedes. However, after trying out the car on second day, he did feel a lot different.
Schumacher said, "It clearly was a productive day, and obviously I am happy about that. We were focusing on long runs and being able to produce such a lot of mileage is positive in terms of reliability.”
Michael said the data collected in the last two days of testing will be helpful in order to enhance capabilities of the car. Schumacher said there is no doubt in his mind that they have to keep improving at par with other teams to have a good chance of winning the championship.
The 42-year old was not on the tracks on day one, as his teammate Nico Rosberg was the one testing the Mercedes. Rosberg was not able to match the pace set by Massa and was 3.2 seconds behind Massa.
Schumacher said he expects the car to get better, as there are some new upgrades to be installed before the season’s start on 13th of March in Bahrain.
Tags: