Oliver White
Day two of the final group test before the season begins next month completed earlier, and surprisingly it was Nico Hulkenberg who managed to edge out Fernando Alonso for the top spot on the timing sheets. Hulkenberg, driving the Williams FW32, was simulating qualifying runs and squeezed ahead of the Ferrari pilot early in the afternoon, meaning Nico’s lap was not bettered for much of the day.
Hulkenberg had completed some longer runs in the morning before changing to short runs after lunch. Most other drivers chose to run their programme the other way around, completing their race distance runs after the break. Alonso completed a race distance in the afternoon without major drama, although his day did come to a slightly early end after the Ferrari stopped on track with just minutes left to go on the clock.
Pedro De La Rosa and Vitantonio Liuzzi enjoyed good runs their respective Sauber C29 and Force India VJM03. De La Rosa managed the third best time of the day, again set on short runs in the morning. Liuzzi made a similar effort and was just behind his Spanish rival. Sebastian Vettel had a mixed afternoon, and although the German managed to topple team mate Mark Webber’s best time from yesterday, the RB6 did stop on track with a mechanical fault partway through a simulated race.
World champions Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton kept themselves to themselves for much of the day and did not run particularly low-fuel levels, instead choosing to run their cars with more weight and over longer distance stints. Schumacher finished his day in P7 while Hamilton was 0.463s behind in P8. Timo Glock was able to drive the Virgin VR-01 today after spare parts were flown in to repair the damage caused by Lucas Di Grassi yesterday. Glock managed to complete 52 laps but unfortunately did make any impression on the timing sheet. Jarno Trulli, driving the Lotus T127, ended his afternoon ahead of Glock in tenth and 0.418s the better.
Fernando Alonso was the busiest driver of the day, completing 134 laps while trying out a raft of new parts on the F10, including a shark-fin engine cover. Schumacher too was testing a variety of new components on the MGP-W01, while the quietest driver of the day was Glock.
Testing continues tomorrow for the third of four days, where Felipe Massa will takeover the Ferrari from Alonso, Adrian Sutil will be in the Force India, Jenson Button will return to the McLaren, Rosberg will return to the Mercedes, Kamui Kobayashi will pilot the Sauber, Sebastien Buemi will take control of the Scuderia Toro Rosso and Rubens Barrichello will be hoping to make it two fastest laps for Williams when he drives the FW32 for the remainder of the test.
Barcelona Test
|
Lap Time
|
Laps Set
|
1. |  Nico Hulkenberg Williams |
1m20.614s | 99 Laps |
| 2. |  Fernando Alonso Ferrari |
1m20.637s | 134 Laps |
| 3. | Pedro De La Rosa Sauber |
1m20.973s | 114 Laps |
| 4. |  Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India |
1m21.056s | 90 Laps |
| 5. | Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing |
1m21.258s | 125 Laps |
| 6. | Jaime Alguersuari Scuderia Toro Rosso |
1m21.571s | 104 Laps |
| 7. | Michael Schumacher Mercedes |
1m21.689s | 85 Laps |
| 8. |  Lewis Hamilton McLaren |
1m22.152s | 93 Laps |
| 9. |  Robert Kubica Renault |
1m24.912s | 53 Laps |
| 10. | Jarno Trulli Lotus |
1m25.524s | 70 Laps |
| 11. | Timo Glock Virgin Racing |
1m25.942s | 52 Laps |
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