With just over a month to go before the season begins, Valencia was a hive of activity as this week’s test continued at the Spanish circuit on Wednesday. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso emerged as the quickest runner from the 12 teams and 15 drivers in action, clocking a best time of 1m 13.307s in the Italian team’s brand-new F150.
Tuesday’s fastest runner, Sebastian Vettel, dropped to second in Red Bull’s RB7. Vettel’s best was three-tenths of a second down on the Spaniard. His team mate Mark Webber also undertook his first outing in the car. Webber's brief spell behind the wheel, after he was hindered by installation problems, saw him rack up 17 laps and set the 14th-best time.
Force India’s Paul di Resta finished in third, ahead of McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton. Both Hamilton and Di Resta were driving interim 2010 cars. Di Resta covered a mammoth 111 laps of the track in the VJM03, evaluating the Pirelli tyres.
"Another good day of testing for the team, gathering lots of information for the guys to work on as we prepare for the debut of the VJM04 next week," said the Briton. "We're now understanding a lot more about the performance of the Pirellis and the differences between the compounds, particularly with regards to long and shorter runs and different fuel loads.
"At this stage we're not going for times, just trying to get representative data to work on. I'm feeling good and well integrated into the team and my new role, there's a really positive atmosphere, which will set us up extremely well for next week when the new car testing programme starts."
The next 2011-spec car was Robert Kubica’s Renault in fifth. Kubica covered 104 laps during his first outing in the team’s new R31. Just down on the Polish driver in sixth was HRT's Narain Karthikeyan, who completed 80 laps in the Spanish team’s 2010 car.
Seventh quickest was Mercedes GP’s Nico Rosberg in the new MGP W02. After their hydraulic issues on Tuesday, the team enjoyed a much more productive day and Rosberg completed 69 laps. Timo Glock joined the action for Virgin in the team’s 2010 car and finished the day eighth after covering 34 laps. Despite some hydraulic problems he was pleased to be back behind the wheel.
Ninth slot on the timesheets was occupied by Williams’ Rubens Barrichello in the new FW33. Barrichello covered 50 laps before handing over the car to his new team mate Pastor Maldonado, who covered 29 laps over the course of the afternoon and finished in 11th.
Separating the two Williams drivers was Sauber’s new signing Sergio Perez, who endured a baptism of fire as he started his career at the team. He completed 42 laps at the wheel of the C30 on his way to 10th in the times before a power-train issue interrupted proceedings. The Sauber mechanics have a busy night ahead of them to fix the problem before Perez’s second day in the car.
“It was a difficult day with not much running and we obviously could not complete our programme,” said the Mexican. “But for me it was still good to get my first laps in the new car, and I am beginning to feel confident with it. I’m looking forward to tomorrow and hope we can do a lot of running with proper set up work.”
In 12th and 13th were Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari. The duo split their time in the new STR6, covering 46 and 64 laps respectively. The final time of the day was set by Lotus’ Heikki Kovalainen, who gave the team’s new T128 its track debut. Kovalainen only managed 15 laps before a power steering failure curtailed his running.
Testing continues in Valencia on Thursday.
Unofficial Wednesday test times from Valencia:
1. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, 1:13.307, 108 Laps
2. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, 1:13.614, 43 Laps
3. Paul di Resta, Force India, 1:13.844, 111 Laps
4. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, 1:14.353, 83 Laps
5. Robert Kubica, Renault, 1:14.412, 104 Laps
6. Narain Karthikeyan, HRT, 1:14.472, 80 Laps
7. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes GP, 1:14.645, 69 Laps
8. Timo Glock, Virgin, 1:15.408, 34 Laps
9. Rubens Barrichello, Williams, 1:16.023, 50 Laps
10. Sergio Perez, Sauber, 1:16.198, 42 Laps
11. Pastor Maldonado, Williams, 1:16.266, 29 Laps
12. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso, 1:16.359, 46 Laps
13. Jaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso, 1:16.474, 64 Laps
14. Mark Webber, Red Bull, 1:17.365, 17 Laps
15. Heikki Kovalainen, Lotus, 1:20.649, 15 Laps
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