Hockenheim Test Day One: Hamilton Leads With Finned McLaren
Testing

Hockenheim Test Day One: Hamilton Leads With Finned McLaren

Oliver White
8th July, 2008
2 comments
2 min read

Lewis Hamilton has lead the field today at the pre-German Grand test at Hockenheim. With his McLaren MP4-23, the British Grand Prix winner went fastest and sported the now common finned-engine cover, much like Renault, Force India, Red Bull and Scuderia Toro Rosso cars. The session was stopped for a while due to heavy rain showers, but after lunch Hamilton was able to eclipse his rival Kimi Raikkonen and go to the top of the tables.

Three-tenths separated the pair who are at the top of the championship along with Felipe Massa, and all teams were present in Germany with at least one regular driver or test driver. Nico Rosberg, who has had a terrible couple of races was testing in the Williams FW30, the German being able to go third quickest ahead of the other local pilot, Adrian Sutil.

Kamui Kobayashi was present for Toyota and the squad tested a new front and rear wing and the Japanese test driver went sixth for the Cologne-based team. Alex Wurz was the other test driver at The Hock, running in the Honda RA108 with a slightly revised front wing. Wurz caused the only red flag of the day when he spun on the wet track.

Testing is expected to continue tomorrow providing the bad weather can hold off.

Hockenheim Test: Day One Times

1. Lewis Hamilton McLaren 1m15.483s 75 Laps
2. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m15.803s 63 Laps
3. Nico Rosberg Williams 1m16.099s 87 Laps
4. Adrian Sutil Force India 1m16.516s 97 Laps
5. Sebastien Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1m16.533s 113 Laps
6. Kamui Kobayashi Toyota 1m16.570s 65 Laps
7. Nick Heidfeld BMW 1m16.593s 59 Laps
8. Nelson Piquet Jr. Renault 1m16.856s 111 Laps
9. David Coulthard Red Bull Racing 1m17.361s 67 Laps
10. Alex Wurz Honda 1m17.825s 31 Laps

2 comments

  • Oliver,

    What you think about the look of the cars with this new engine cover? I must confess that a like it a lot, they seems to be much more FAST.

    Isn´t great that the cars has changed his basic design which is the same since the 70´s?

    What you think?

  • I’m not convinced yet – Force India’s is probably the ugliest IMO, although that may be more to do with the colours they use. McLaren’s doesn’t look too bad I suppose.

    Anyway, they might be banned from next year what with the crack down in the rules on aero parts. Not sure if this part falls into it though as it doesn’t produce downforce.

You may also like

Follow BlogF1