Sebastian Vettel scores fastest time on first day of 3rd pre-season test session after restart
After an eventful first day of the 3rd pre-season test session that took place in Barcelona, it seems that at first, Fernando Alonso scored the fastest time of the day as the session came to an abrupt end since Rubens
Barrichello’s car spun and stalled in the middle of the track causing red flags.
It was believed that the session would not restart but since the stewards were able to clear this matter sooner than expected, the session restarted and as a result, Sebastian Vettel was able to slot in a time faster than Fernando Alonso in the last few
minutes after the restart.
Other than that, the discussion of the day was the events in Bahrain and the certainty that the final pre-season test session could be moved back to Spain.
Due to the current “unrest” situation in Bahrain, it is believed that the first race of the 2011 Formula 1 season might have to be moved to another venue as the season is expected to begin on March 13. The teams met later on after the test session to discuss
the current situation.
Nevertheless, the teams were not quite active during the first half of the session as the track was wet but after the track dried, most of the teams started to score some laps and their respective performances improved respectively as the conditions improved.
Michael Schumacher scored the most laps of the day as he ran for 90 laps. Fernando Alonso was not scoring fast times as expected as his team was running constant-speed aero testing but as soon as he returned to slick tyres, he scored the fastest time of
day up until then.
Just like the sessions in Jerez and Valencia, Alonso was removed from the top spot in the last couple of minutes but this time, by Sebastian Vettel. Sebastian did not run for more than 17 laps though after the lunch break but his fastest time was over a
second faster than the Spaniard.
The rest of the standings stayed pretty much the same as the standings before the restart. Jenson Button was the fastest man on the track before Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel scored the fastest times of the night. However, it was an entertaining session
and this was the first time that Sebastian Vettel pushed a lot in his new RB7.
But as we all know, the lap times of the pre-season test sessions don’t matter much as each team has its own criteria at each day of each session but one does get an idea of the capability of a team’s respective car.
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