Jerez Test Day Two: Fernando’s Back…

On his debut-run in the Renault, a car which he contributed to its development little over a year ago, Fernando Alonso has topped the timing sheets, even out-pacing Pedro De La Rosa in the McLaren. In what can only really be described as a wipe the grin off Ron’s face moment, Alonso popped in two quick runs, the fastest being a 1m19.503s, almost 0.15s faster than his fellow countryman. Ferrari weren’t too far behind either, with Kimi Raikkonen going third and Felipe Massa going fifth, both in the new F2008.

Nico Rosberg was the meat in the Ferrari sandwich, going fourth and 0.8s faster than his team mate Kazuki Nakajima. McLaren new-boy Heikki Kovalainen went sixth but managed an impressive 130 tours of Jerez, which combined with De La Rosa’s 111 meant McLaren had a very productive day.

Both Scuderia Toro Rossos looked to be on form as Sebastian Vettel went seventh, ahead of his team mate Sebastien Bourdais and Red Bull Racing driver Mark Webber. The bottom of the tables saw Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella sandwiched between the Toyota of Timo Glock in eleventh and Kamui Kobayashi in thirteenth.

Williams are still using an interim chassis with the FW30 not due until Valencia next week. Glock ran in the new TF108 and test driver Kobayashi ran an interim car, although it did have a 2008 spec. gearbox and electronics. Super Aguri were at the circuit today but couldn’t run as they are waiting for parts to deal with an overheating problem.

Jerez Test Day Two Times