Barrichello on topposted in F113 | 02 | 2011
BRAZILIAN RUBENS Barrichello topped the timesheets at the end of the final day of Formula One testing at Jerez. The Williams driver (pictured) set the fastest time of the week when he clocked a 1m19.832s this morning.
It was clear from early in the day though that teams were concentrating on mid-to-long runs — rather than out-and-out fast laps — as they raced to gather as much data and information as they could.
Even Barrichello's best time came at the end of an eight-lap run. The Brazilian later produced the longest stint of the test so far in the afternoon, completing 25 laps that started in high 1m26s for 16 laps before slipping away to low 1m29s by the end.
As if to highlight how little out-and-out pace mattered today, the Williams finished the day 0.769s ahead of Kamui Kobayashi's Sauber-Ferrari, with Fernando Alonso's Ferrari third, followed by the Torro-Rosso of Sebastien Buemi and Bruno Senna in the Renault.
After Michael Schumacher's pace earlier in the week, Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg had to settle for seventh, having had a long delay in the pits after stopping on track in the morning.
And while McLaren, in the hands of Jenson Button, worked mainly on long stints — lapping in the 1m25s for the vast majority of a 19-lap run this afternoon — Red Bull continued to work almost anonymously off the radar.
World champ Sebastian Vettel was only eighth-fastest in his new RB7 as the German, who completed 90 laps of the 2.75-mile circuit, spent the rest of the day doing long runs, seemingly with a lot of fuel in the car.
Scot Paul di Resta racked up a stack of mileage in his Force India VJM04. The 24-year-old from Bathgate completed 99 laps as he and the team continued to develop the new car. His day though came to a premature end when, with 20 minutes of the session remaining — and as the rain began to fall heavily — he went off the track at Dry Sack due to a front suspension problem that pitched him into the gravel.
The teams now have a couple of days off before they reconvene at Barcelona on Friday for the third official F1 test.
F1 Test, Jerez, Spain — Day 4 of 4:
1. Rubens Barrichello, Williams-Cosworth — 1m19.832s
2. Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber-Ferrari — 1m20.601s +0.769s
3. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari — 1m21.074s +1.242s
4. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso-Ferrari — 1m21.213s +1.381s
5. Bruno Senna, Renault — 1m21.400s +1.568s
6. Heikki Kovalainen, Lotus-Renault — 1m21.632s +1.800s
7. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes — 1m22.103s +2.271s
8. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull-Renault — 1m22.222s +2.39s
9. Jenson Button, McLaren-Mercedes — 1m22.278s +2.446s
10. Jerome D'Ambrosio, Virgin-Cosworth — 1m22.985s +3.153s
11. Paul di Resta, Force India-Mercedes — 1m23.111s + 3.279s
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Jim McGill