Jerez Test Day Five: The Test Day That Almost Never Happened

Despite thinking yesterday that testing was over and done with for this week, the teams have been developing their cars for a fifth day at Jerez in Spain. Renault and Force India left the circuit last night but Ferrari, McLaren, BMW, Toyota, Williams and Red Bull all remained and posted times once again. And so for the final day of the penultimate group test, BMW’s Nick Heidfeld took the honours of going fastest, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton.

The track was wet during the morning and remained windy for most of the day, playing havoc with the cars and sending Hamilton into the barriers. The accident was minor although the team covered the MP4-24 for its journey back to the pitlane on the back of a flatbed. Once arriving outside the McLaren garage, team members surrounded the vehicle with barriers to avoid eyes landing on the details of Woking’s newest title contender.

The incident didn’t dissuade Hamilton too much though and at the end of the day the reigning champion was third fastest, resting behind Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari and ahead of Mark Webber’s Red Bull. Webber only completed 47 laps and just about kept his nose ahead of Kazuki Nakajima in the Williams, the difference in lap time being a mere 0.007s. Toyota propped up the timing sheet, with Jarno Trulli touring the circuit just 38 times. The Italian suffered damage to the front of the car after running over the kerbs.

We lost the morning to the weather but in the afternoon we had a chance to try out the 2010 Bridgestone slick tyres. The conditions remained difficult because the wind was still strong.

On one run I picked up some damage to the front wing after running over kerbs. Still, we made it through a number of runs and collected data for the future. As for this season, this test shows that things are going well for us so we can be confident. Jarno Trulli.

The next test will be Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, due to commence on this coming Monday.

Jerez Test Day Five Results Table		Lap Time Fastest Time Set	Laps Set Number Laps Set
1.	Nick Heidfeld BMW	1m20.052s	123 Laps
2.	Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari	1m20.404s	112 Laps
3.	Lewis Hamilton McLaren	1m21.272s	58 Laps
4.	Mark Webber Red Bull Racing	1m22.219s	47 Laps
5.	Kazuki Nakajima Williams	1m22.226s	54 Laps
6.	Jarno Trulli Toyota	1m23.119s	38 Laps

Image © BMW AG.