Oliver White
Day one of the Barcelona test wound up earlier with wet weather interrupting many of the runs and hindering progress for the teams present. Currently, only Williams, Toyota, Red Bull and Renault are setting times with Super Aguri shelving plans to join their rivals earlier in the week. Rosberg comfortably went to the top of the timing sheet, setting a 1m30.675s, just shy of two seconds quicker than team mate Kazuki Nakajima.
Mark Webber went third in his Red Bull getting to be within 0.2s of Nakajima despite only completing 26 laps to Kazuki’s 96. Fourth place went to Fernando Alonso who waved to local fans lining the track despite the damp weather.
It was cold and wet today and so there was no point in doing a lot of running. It was an opportunity to try the car in the wet, but it was so slippery that we did not do many laps. We waited in the afternoon for conditions to improve, but they did not so we ended the day slightly early. Fernando Alonso.
David Coulthard completed 22 laps ahead of Jarno Trulli in the Toyota and Nelson Piquet Jr in the second Renault. Toyota were present with two cars, but test driver Kamui Kobayashi only set one installation lap in the TF108. McLaren were at the circuit and set up in their garage, but ultimately decided not to run. The British squad will review the conditions on Wednesday and make a decision in the morning.
Barcelona Day One Lap Times
| 1. | Nico Rosberg | Williams | 1m30.675s | 73 Laps |
| 2. | Kazuki Nakajima | Williams | 1m32.370s | 96 Laps |
| 3. | Mark Webber | Red Bull Racing | 1m32.599s | 26 Laps |
| 4. | Fernando Alonso | Renault | 1m32.820s | 16 Laps |
| 5. | David Coulthard | Red Bull Racing | 1m32.924s | 22 Laps |
| 6. | Jarno Trulli | Toyota | 1m.33.284s | 57 Laps |
| 7. | Nelson Piquet Jr | Renault | 1m40.073s | 8 Laps |
| 8. | Kamui Kobayashi | Toyota | No Time | 1 Lap |
Image courtesy of Williams.
Nakajima was sandbagging!
I hope Nakajima was sandbagging as well. I currently can’t make my mind up about him. His first race in Brazil wasn’t a bad effort aside from the pitlane blunder. But winter testing has been erratic for the young man. Perhaps it is the car, perhaps it is his programme. But other drivers have been more consistent with their times. I just can’t decide if he’s worthy of a drive or if Toyota are just desperate to get a Japanese driver in one of their teams, factory or customer.
The strange thing is that Kazuki was Mr Consistency in GP2 – he had podium finish after podium finish in the second half of the season. I think the differing demands of testing are causing the apparently erratic times he has been setting and that the real measure of his ability is how often he has been faster than Nico. Wurz couldn’t do that. And, looking at the only GP he’s been in so far, his fastest race lap was quicker than Rosberg’s, a fact obscured by his rookie mistake of running over a couple of mechanics in his pit stop. What emerges is the fact that Mr Nakajima appears to be the fastest Japanese driver we’ve seen in F1 so far and he can stay on the track for the entire race distance. Whether he will be able to continue doing that for an entire season is what we now need to see. I hope he manages it – Japan’s commitment to the sport deserves a driver who can fight with the best.
Nakajima fastest in testing at Barcelona today! Beating both McLaren and Ferrari in the process, I might add – with Rosberg just behind the big boys.
That Japanese guy can drive, I tell you. 🙂
[…] Clive was so keen to point out earlier, Kazuki Nakajima has topped the timing sheets on the third and final day of […]