The final test at Sepang ended today with Renault’s Heikki Kovalainen taking the top spot beating Felipe Massa’s Ferrari and Anthony Davidson’s Super Aguri. With the extra day added to the schedule following yesterdays poor weather, Renault concentrated on simulated qualifying runs and managed to finish ahead of Ferrari by 0.05s. Felipe Massa continued Ferrari’s dominance by going second with 73 laps in his bag and no troubles all day.
There is still a lot of progress to be made, but we are moving in the right direction, and I think we got the maximum from our week’s running in the circumstances. Heikki seems comfortable at this track, he learned it quickly and is in good shape going into next week’s grand prix. Christian Silk.
British driver Anthony Davidson also showed the potential his Super Aguri has by clocking the third fastest lap of the day, beating Williams driver Nico Rosberg by a little over 0.2s. Toyota followed with Franck Montagny subbing for the team’s regular drivers, and Nick Heidfeld completed the top six in his BMW.
Today it is all about concentrating on details and continuous enhancement. In my opinion the biggest potential to find speed lies in aerodynamics and the optimal understanding and use of the tyres. Nick Heidfeld.
Lewis Hamilton drove for the first half of the day in his McLaren MP4-22, while regular test driver Pedro De La Rosa took over after Hamilton’s pre-Malaysian preparations had been completed. Lewis set the eighth fastest lap while De La Rosa propped up the timing sheets going dead last. Mark Webber went just 0.3s slower than Hamilton, while Italian driver Vitantonio Liuzzi toured the circuit 55 times to only set a lap time way off the pace down in tenth.
1. Kovalainen – Renault – 1m35.757s
2. Massa – Ferrari – 1m35.808s
3. Davidson – Super Aguri – 1m36.787s
4. Rosberg – Williams – 1m37.002s
5. Montagny – Toyota – 1m37.206s
6. Heidfeld – BMW – 1m37.318s
7. Button – Honda – 1m37.326s
8. Hamilton – McLaren – 1m37.448s
9. Webber – Red Bull Racing – 1m37.778s
10. Liuzzi – Toro Rosso – 1m38.542s
11. Klien – Honda – 1m39.175s
12. De La Rosa – McLaren – 1m39.303s
[…] in Sepang has concluded and Heikki Kovalainen is the surprise package finishing on top. Renault must be thrilled with the result but what it means on the track during the race, only time […]