Massa Regains Control Of Testing

After the interesting finishing order yesterday, Felipe Massa restored order this afternoon by putting his Ferrari at the top of the timing sheets, beating Robert Kubica in the BMW and Lewis Hamilton in his McLaren. Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari was fourth, just under 0.4s shy of Massa’s pace, but suffered mechanical problems during the day and interruptions from the poor weather. Fernando Alonso once again confirmed the McLaren’s speed by finishing the day in fifth, just pipping Nelson Piquet Jr in the Renault by 0.03s. Both Williams were relegated to seventh and eighth, Alex Wurz getting the better of his team mate Nico Rosberg. Although this isn’t quite the spectacular form we saw yesterday, it does still look good for Team Willy.

Toyota were present with Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli, although their hit-and-miss testing season continues with a rather dull performance, ending the day in ninth for Ralf, and fifteenth for Jarno. Red Bull Racing also continued their less-than-eventful winter testing with Mark Webber finishing in tenth, and team mate David Coulthard just behind in twelfth. Jenson Button returned to driving today, but could only manage thirteenth, just 0.02s ahead of Ricardo Zonta in the second Renault. Marco Andretti propped up the time sheet in his second outing for the Honda team, finishing up with a time of 1m20.888s after 91 laps.

At Silverstone, Spyker concluded their shakedown, this time with new boy Adrian Sutil taking the pilots seat. Although the team didn’t manage the 200km they completed on Tuesday, Adrian still pounded in the laps on the icy British circuit and the session was pronounced a “success” by Mike Gascoyne. The team will now pack everything up and head for Barcelona for next weeks big test when the car will begin more rigorous testing duties.

1. Massa – Ferrari – 1m19.647s

2. Kubica – BMW – 1m19.794s

3. Hamilton – McLaren – 1m19.810s

4. Raikkonen – Ferrari – 1m20.007s

5. Alonso – McLaren – 1m20.040s

6. Piquet Jr – Renault – 1m20.070s

7. Wurz – Williams – 1m20.132s

8. Rosberg – Williams – 1m20.143s

9. Schumacher – Toyota – 1m20.600s

10. Webber – Red Bull Racing – 1m20.629s

11. Heidfeld – BMW – 1m20.647s

12. Coulthard – Red Bull Racing – 1m20.702s

13. Button – Honda – 1m20.747s

14. Zonta – Renault – 1m20.767s

15. Trulli – Toyota – 1m20.888s

16. Andretti – Honda – 1m22.147s

Formula One, F1, Winter Testing, Ferrari, Felipe Massa