Barcelona Test Day One: Hamilton Fastest On Schumacher’s Return

Lewis Hamilton put his McLaren MP4-23 at the top of the timing sheets on the day that saw Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen share the tarmac in equal equipment. The times were tight, with one second separating the top thirteen and the top half of the tables showing some interesting names. The track was damp in the morning, but unlike last week a dry line appeared relatively quickly and the teams were able to get some decent running in.

Michael Schumacher debuted in the new F2008 today, lapping the circuit only 0.1s shy of Raikkonen and placing his red rocket in a respectable third. Williams also had a great first session at Circuit de Catalunya with Kazuki Nakajima ending his day in fourth and Nico Rosberg winding up in sixth. McLaren completed their day with Heikki Kovalainen landin his new car in fifth.

The surprise of the day was Adrian Sutil, touring the circuit 62 times on his way to ninth. Mark Webber rounded out the top ten with his finned RB4. Although while Webber ran well David Coulthard finshed the day at the bottom in nineteenth. Renault sent both drivers out with Fernando Alonso claiming seventh and Nelson Piquet Jr fifteenth. Both Honda’s continued to struggle with the new RA108, Rubens Barrichello and Alex Wurz only managing seventeenth and eighteenth respectively.

Barcelona Day One Times