Barcelona Test Day Three: Alonso Climbs As STR Fall

Day three at Barcelona saw Renault improve to lead the teams as Fernando Alonso set the fastest lap of the day. His time was set while on slick tyres and was 0.9s faster than Ferrari’s head F1 car developer and former champion Michael Schumacher. Adrian Sutil placed his Ferrari-powered Force India in an impressive third, although like the two drivers ahead of him, he was also on slick tyres and also running the faster 2008 aero. setup.

It was the first time I’d tried slicks this year and I was really impressed. The grip is amazing but it’s also very physical on your neck muscles. Adrian Sutil.

Adrian’s comment there about strain on the neck implying that cornering speeds have increased, at least with the 2008 aero. package on the car.

Scuderia Toro Rosso debuted their new car that is remarkably like the 2008 Red Bull, entrusted in the hands of French driver Sebastien Bourdais. Unfortunately, although Sebastian Vettel was scheduled to take over tomorrow, the German has been told to stay at home as Bourdais wrote off the one car they have at the moment. Sebastien left the track at T9 and clouted the barrier. Although the Champ Car champion is perfectly okay, the left side of the car was destroyed, rendering it useless for further testing.

It is currently unknown if this set back affects the planned debut-of-anger for the STR3 in Spain at the end of the month. Bourdais wasn’t the only off of the day though, as Robert Kubica smashed the barrier at T7 later in the afternoon. So far, both incidents have been put down to driver error, each over-cooking it through the corners.