Massa Continues Pace Into The Winter

As most teams begin the change to Bridgestone tyres today – testing at Spain’s Circuit de Catalunya – Felipe Massa continued his form from Brazil and posted the fastest lap of the day in his Ferrari. Massa set a lap time of 1m17.162s, and beat Pedro De La Rosa’s McLaren by 0.4s.

Lewis Hamilton was also present for McLaren, but had to endure an engine mapping problem before returning to the track to set the sixth quickest time. Other drivers getting their first real experience of their new cars were Anthony Davidson for Super Aguri and Mark Webber for Red Bull. Davidson completed 91 laps in what looked like a very similar car to last years Honda, and Webber finished ahead of his team mate David Coulthard, albeit at the bottom of the time sheets. Nelson Piquet Jnr tested for Renault and set a faster time than newly appointed full-time driver Heikki Kovalainen, and Williams fitted a new Toyota in the back of their motor which Alex Wurz tested, finishing up ninth for the day.

1. Massa – Ferrari – 1m17.162s

2. De La Rosa – McLaren – 1m17.546s

3. Badoer – Ferrari – 1m17.554s

4. Heidfeld – BMW – 1m17.652s

5. Barrichello – Honda – 1m17.932s

6. Hamilton – McLaren – 1m18.241s

7. Kubica – BMW – 1m18.519s

8. Rossiter – Honda – 1m18.526s

9. Wurz – Williams – 1m18.691s

10. Piquet Jnr – Renault – 1m18.852s

11. Davidson – Super Aguri – 1m19.111s

12. Kovalainen – Renault – 1m19.187s

13. Liuzzi – Toro Rosso – 1m19.216s

14. Speed – Toro Rosso – 1m19.380s

15. Webber – Red Bull Racing – 1m19.439s

16. Coulthard – Red Bull Racing – 1m19.692s

Formula One, F1, Winter Testing, Felipe Massa, Ferrari