Oliver WhiteRain was the order of the day in Jerez this afternoon, adding further to the lack of testing completed this off-season. Despite the precipitation though, most teams present in Spain went out for a few laps, some more than others. Toyota’s Timo Glock topped the timing sheets with a lap time just over 0.3s faster than Robert Kubica in the BMW. However, it wasn’t an easy day and the red flag was brought out on more than one occasion as cars spluttered to a stop.
Although Timo Glock was only able to complete 89 tours of Jerez – in Bahrain the team racked up many hundreds of laps – the German was pleased with how the day was spent on wet weather tyres and was thankful the weather was consistent enough for some set up work to be completed.
Robert Kubica finished the day in second although the Pole was forced to stop on track with a false electrical alarm caused by the wet weather. Nico Rosberg (the busiest driver of the day with 114 laps) in the Williams posted a promising third fastest lap and Giancarlo Fisichella managed fourth in the new Force India VJM02, although the Italian was only able to complete 54 laps.
Nico Rosberg continued preparation work with the FW31 today. Despite the wet conditions and a red flag temporarily halting proceedings this morning, Nico still managed to complete a race distance. We then spent the afternoon on general wet-weather setup work. We’ve had a good day and haven’t come across any problems with the car. Dickie Stanford.
Sebastian Vettel and Heikki Kovalainen were down in the rankings, the pair 1.2s and 2.3s off the leaders pace respectively. Vettel concentrated on pitstop work with the new crew who will be present for the first race in Australia. Nelson Piquet Jr. finished at the bottom and Ferrari chose not to run, instead keeping cover in the garage and motorhome. One can only presume the Scuderia have completed enough wet weather running to know exactly how the F60 handles in these conditions.
Testing is scheduled to continue tomorrow, but forecasts also predict the rain will continue as well. Adrian Sutil, Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso are all expected to run tomorrow, weather permitting.
Jerez Test
|
Lap Time
|
Laps Set
|
|
| 1. |  Timo Glock Toyota |
1m30.979s | 89 Laps |
| 2. |  Robert Kubica BMW |
1m31.327s | 70 Laps |
| 3. | Nico Rosberg Williams |
1m31.451s | 114 Laps |
| 4. |  Giancarlo Fisichella Force India |
1m31.547s | 54 Laps |
| 5. | Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing |
1m32.220s | 102 Laps |
| 6. |  Heikki Kovalainen McLaren |
1m33.371s | 31 Laps |
| 7. |  Nelson Piquet Jr. Renault |
1m33.476s | 66 Laps |
| 8. | Felipe Massa Ferrari |
No Time | 0 Laps |
[…] Jerez Test Day Two: The Rain In Spain… – BlogF1 […]