Barcelona Test Day Two: Badoer Leads For Ferrari, Again

Luca Badoer has gone fastest again on the second day of testing in Spain today. Driving the F2008 and touring the Circuit de Catalunya Badoer managed a time of 1m21.013, approximately 1.4s better than the fastest lap from Thursday. Taking over from Gary Paffett in the McLaren was Pedro De La Rosa, the Spanish star making it into second and ahead of Timo Glock in the Toyota. Nico Rosberg took over the helm at Williams after Nico Hulkenberg showed his hand yesterday.

David Coulthard enjoyed a full days running, having only spent half the day in the Red Bull yesterday to give Sebastien Buemi a chance. Coulthard went fifth quickest and outpaced current championship leader Robert Kubica by a tenth. Rubens Barrichello did some leg work for Honda and Nelson Piquet Jr took over from Romain Grosjean, the Brazilian completing a mammoth 129 laps – the driver certainly needs the practice. Piquet is also expected to test tomorrow all day as well.

Sebastien Bourdais was present for Scuderia Toro Rosso, and despite being at the bottom of the tables, the French driver was only 2s off the pace of Badoer. While that is a lot overall, during a test session it isn’t a great deal. Often one team will be simulating qualifying runs or running low fuel-levels and will therefore find themselves at the top of the tables, while another crew wil be practising starts, pit stops, or seeing how the tyres work in certain conditions. Therefore, it isn’t unusual to see a wide range of times in testing.