Barcelona Test Day Three: Trulli Goes To The Top Of The Class

On the final day of testing before the 2008 season begins, Toyota’s Jarno Trulli has put in a surprising quick lap and ended the winter season at the top of the timing sheets. The pace of the TF108 has been questionable and the squad have been a little inconsistent in pre-season testing, but this result will certainly buoy the team as they pack everything and head to Australia. Trulli’s team mate Timo Glock finished his day in eleventh, some 1.3s shy of the Italian’s pace.

Red Bull Racing also had a good day with David Coulthard returning to the track following his trapped nerve problem yesterday. The Scot managed to go second and 0.35s down on Trulli’s pace-setting lap. Mark Webber followed suit with a fifth-fastest lap, keeping himself ahead of Nelson Piquet Jr in sixth. Williams also continued to look good with Nico Rosberg in third and Kazuki Nakajima in eighth.

Ferrari and McLaren on fielded one car each today, Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton getting in a few extra laps in their respective cars. Kimi ended the day ahead of Lewis, although they were down in ninth and tenth. Force India ran both drivers in the new VJM01 car, Giancarlo Fisichella slotting into twelfth and Adrian Sutil in sixteenth. BMW continued to cause worry as well, having not really made themselves noticeable at this test session. Again the Swiss-German team were well down the tables with Robert Kubica finishing in fourteenth and Nick Heidfeld further behind in seventeenth.

The timing sheet was supported from the bottom by Honda once again. Jenson Button ran well yesterday to get his RA108 into ninth but today had to admit defeat and finished at the bottom, just behind test driver Alex Wurz. Honda are due to try out some new aero parts at a private test in Jerez next week, but the Brackley-team are giving out signs of desperation at the moment. The car doesn’t look particularly great and they could well end up having a repeat of 2007 this season.

Barcelona Day Three Test Times