Massa fastest at Jerezposted in F110 | 02 | 2011
FERRARI'S FELIPE MASSA topped the timesheets at the end of the openi g day of Formula One testing at Jerez. The Brazilian's best time of 1min 20.709secs came after seven laps of his first run of the day, and midway through a 14-lap run.
It's fair to say though that none of the teams were exactly going for fast times today: second-fastest was the Sauber-Ferrari of Sergio Perez, 0.774s behind Massa.
Most of the teams were working on fine-tuning their cars in terms of performance allied to fuel loads and the new Pirelli tyres.
Aussie Mark Webber was third-quickest, but his best — a 1:21.522s —came on the first of a six-lap run in his Red Bull. However, perhaps ominously for the rest of the teams, the Red Bull looked comfortably and impressively fast over several longer runs, generally sitting in the 1:23s.
That was also the fastest time set by Adrian Sutil in the all-new Force India VJM04. With Scottish team-mate Paul di Resta keeping a watchful eye on proceedings from the pitwall, the German tentatively nursed the new car (pictured) through its first day on track after being unveiled to the public on Tuesday.
At the end of the day Sutil did 11 consecutive laps, mainly in the 1m24s, and 28 in total during the day. His quickest lap, a 1:23.472s put him seventh on the timesheets.
While former world champ Lewis Hamilton was fifth in the McLaren, clocking a fastest of 1:21.914s, 1.205s behind Massa, Mercedes again look to be struggling for pace.
Nico Rosberg's times slipped from 1:24s to 1:26s on his longest run of the day, 17 laps, in the Merc — though he did set his best time of the day — a 1:23.963s - on the third lap of that stint, while carrying a significant fuel load.
And Vitaly Petrov, who has now taken on the No1 position in the Renault team following the horrific rally crash suffered by team-mate Robert Kubica in Italy at the weekend, eased himself into action. The Russian spent the majority of his morning doing back-to-back installation laps, then settled into the 1m24s on his longest run of eight laps.
The team's return to the Spanish circuit tomorrow, with Di Resta lined up to replace Sutil in the Force India car on Saturday and Sunday.
Formula One Testing, Day 1 of 4 at Jerez, Spain: Times
1. Felipe Massa, Ferrari — 1m20.709s
2. Sergio Perez, Sauber-Ferrari — 1m21.483s, +0.774s
3. Mark Webber, Red Bull-Renault — 1:21.522s, +0.813s
4. Daniel Ricciardo, Toro Rosso-Ferrari — 1m21.755s, +1.046s
5. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren-Mercedes — 1m21.914s, +1.205s
6. Jaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso-Ferrari — 1m22.689s, +1.980s
7. Adrian Sutil, Force India-Mercedes — 1:23.472s, +2.763s
8. Vitaly Petrov, Renault — 1m23.504s, +2.795s
9. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes — 1m23.963s, +3.254s
10. Jarno Trulli, Lotus-Renault — 1m24.458s, +3.749s
11. Timo Glock, Virgin-Cosworth — 1m25.086s, +4.377s
12. Pastor Maldonado, Williams-Cosworth — 1m34.968s, +14.259s
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Jim McGill