Valencia Test Day Three: Kovalainen Goes Top

On the second full day of running, the third the teams have been at Valencia, McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen has gone fastest, beating the Ferrari’s and going 0.662s faster than Felipe Massa in the F2008. The pace shown from the McLaren further adds to the prospect of a great battle between the two teams this season. Kimi Raikkonen followed his team mate into third, holding Lewis Hamilton back in fourth. Williams continued its impressive pre-season testing with Kazuki Nakajima putting his interim FW29 into fifth and Nico Rosberg going seventh with the new FW30.

Red Bull Racing were on hand with Mark Webber and the new RBR4, the Australian speaking of confidence in the new car despite a few problems in the morning.

Today has been encouraging and, so far, it seems to be a big step forward from last year in terms of reliability and speed, which is great. Mark Webber.

BMW ran both Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld today, and attached a new nose to the front of the F1.08 which brought some laughter among the paddock. The cars haven’t seemed as pacey in Valencia as they were in Jerez and Heidfeld only managed ninth, Kubica ending his day in twelfth. Scuderia Toro Rosso ran both race drivers again in the adapted STR2 chassis that they will run for the first few races in 2008. Force India ran one F8-VII around the circuit, Adrian Sutil taking the reins.

And finally, Honda rolled their 2008 challenger onto the track today with Rubens Barrichello charged with the initial run of the RA108. The Brazilian took it easy and completed a few installation laps. He ultimately finished Wednesday in penultimate last, only above new tester Takashi Kogure in the sister Honda RA107.

Valencia Times Day Three