Red Bull’s Mark Webber sets the pace on day one of Barcelona testing – Formula 1 Update
The five-day Formula 1 final Barcelona test session has started on Tuesday in Spain, as eight teams participated in the session under the rainy weather conditions. Red Bull’s Mark Webber topped the time-sheets on the first day of testing.
The day proved good for all the Formula 1 drivers except Sebastien Buemi of Toro Rosso, whose outing was cut short due to some technical problem in his new STR6 car. The unexpected weather conditions on the Spanish Circuit made life difficult for the teams,
but Webber ignored the unpredictable wind and managed to finish 97 laps in the RB7 car.
Webber set the pace in Barcelona and his top time of 1 minute and 22.544 seconds was recorded during a qualifying-type stint, which saw him post two very hot laps. He was followed closely by Jenson Button of McLaren-Mercedes, who clocked 1 minute and 22.910
seconds in his new MP4-26 car. However, Button’s performance over the day showed genuine improvement on his previous outings.
Vitaly Petrov and Nick Heidfeld put Renault on third and fifth respectively. Heidfeld struggled with the flu during his race and completed only 20 laps in the morning, but in the afternoon he handed over the R31 car to Petrov, who made the most of the opportunity
and managed 27 laps.
In fourth position was Sergio Perez of Sauber, with a time of 1 minute and 24.117 seconds. The drivers of Force India Paul di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg, ran their Kinetic Energy Recovery System for the first time on day one, as the drivers failed to deliver,
clocking 1 minute 25.039 seconds and 1 minute 26.030 seconds, to come sixth and ninth respectively. The drivers managed the setups of their 2011 car and evaluated the new tyres during the test runs.
GP2 series drivers David Valsecchi and Luiz Razia, drove for team Lotus. During the first test session in Formula 1, Valsecchi showed good progress and completed 50 laps with a time of 1 minute 25.406 seconds. He made an impressive run for the team in the
new T128 car while Razia brought out one red flag of the day when he stopped on the track with just minutes left in the session.
The final runner of the first day was, Jerome D’Ambrosio of the Virgin team. His performance during the test run really disappointed the team as he completed 57 laps with a poor time.
It will be interesting to see how the teams come out for day two of testing in Barcelona, as the weather conditions might play a factor in the car setups and driver lap times.
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