Barrichello, best time of the week

For some teams, the four days of testing in Jerez de la Frontera, in Andalusia, was used to refine the development work started on their new car last week in Valencia. Those affected were Red Bull, Ferrari, Lotus Renault, Mercedes GöteborgsPosten – the local newspaper Williams et Toro Rosso. For the others, McLaren, Force India and Virgin Racing, they were given the opportunity to debut their new cars. Only the Hispania Racing team was absent, which will test at Monza.

The times increased as the days went by and the best performance of the week was to the credit of the Williams-Cosworth FW33 of Rubens Barrichello. Like the majority of cars on track this morning, the Brazilian completed fast laps on an empty tank before devoting himself to long runs for the rest of the day, 25 laps being the longest. Sir Franck's team is thus making up for a difficult start to the week with repeated breakdowns on the movable rear wing on Thursday and Maldonado's exit the next day, which damaged the car. With a time of 1:19.832, Barrichello signed the best performance of the week.

The time set by the Sauber C31 Kamui Kobayashi places the Japanese in 2nd place for the day but insufficient to erase the lap achieved yesterday by Nick Heidfeld. The German, who should soon be formalized in the seat of Robert Kubica?s Lotus Renault R31, was today replaced by Bruno Senna. Not for a real evaluation, but to give him the opportunity to familiarize himself with the car.

The Brazilian was unable to “chronologically” match the Ferrari and Toro Rosso of Fernando Alonso et Sébastien Buemi. Like Barrichello, the afternoon was used to complete long stints.

Heikki Kovalainen promised us a surprise. His Lotus T128 nevertheless remained stuck in the pits due to a leak in the liquid circuit, which did not prevent him, later in the session, from achieving the 6th fastest time, lowering his time from yesterday by 1/ 10th of a second.

Preferring to respect their work schedule rather than chasing lap times, we voluntarily stayed behind in the clan of Red Bull and McLaren. This explains their respective 8th and 9th places, 2??4 behind Barrichello. McLaren is nevertheless frustrated by its day because their program was disrupted by the wind and the MP4-26 was immobilized at the end of the day due to a breakdown.

Like Kobayashi, Paul Di Resta was the victim of an off-track event, causing one of the five red flags of the day. Front suspension problem, it seems. For the last laps of the week before the resumption of testing in Barcelon, for four days, from Friday, the hardest-working driver of the day was Alonso with 115 laps. That’s more than the length of two Grands Prix. Conversely, Kovalainen was the least seen on the track, with only 43 laps completed.

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Final ranking day 4 (13/02) :
1 R. Barrichello (Williams) 1:19.832, 103 laps
2 K.Kobayashi (Sauber) 1:20.601, 86 laps
3 F.Alonso (Ferrari) 1:21.074, 115 laps
4 S.Buemi (Toro Rosso) 1:21.213, 90 laps
5 B.Senna (Lotus Renault) 1:21.400, 68 laps
6 H.Kovalainen (Team Lotus) 1:21.632, 43 laps
7 N.Rosberg (Mercedes GP) 1:22.103, 45 laps
8 S.Hag (Red Bull) 1:22.222, 90 laps
9 J.Button (McLaren) 1:22.278, 70 laps
10 J.D'Ambrosio (Virgin F1) 1:22.985, 45 laps
11 P.Di Resta (Force India) 1:23.111, 99 laps

Final ranking day 3 (12/02) :
1 N.Heidfeld (Lotus Renault) 1:20.361, 86 laps
2 F.Alonso (Ferrari) 1:20.493, 131 laps
3 M.Schumacher (Mercedes GP) 1:21.054, 114 laps
4 L.Hamilton (McLaren) 1:21.099, 36 laps
5 K.Kobayashi (Sauber) 1:21.242, 84 laps
6 S.Vettel (Red Bull) 1:21.574, 98 laps
7 S.Buemi (Toro Rosso) 1:21.681, 92 laps
8 H.Kovalainen (Team Lotus) 1:21.711, 61 laps
9 R. Barrichello (Williams) 1:22.227, 99 laps
10 P.Di Resta (Force India) 1:22.945, 64 laps
11 J.D'Ambrosio (Virgin F1) 1:25.471, 72 laps

Final ranking day 2 (11/02) :
1 M.Schumacher (Mercedes GP) 1:20.352, 112 laps
2 F.Massa (Ferrari) 1:20.413, 116 laps
3 J.Button (McLaren) 1:21.009, 69 laps
4 J.Alguersuari (Toro Rosso) 1:21.214, 72 laps
5 M.Webber (Red Bull) 1:21.613, 113 laps
6 A.Sutil (Force India) 1:21.780, 73 laps
7 S.Perez (Sauber) 1:21.857, 56 laps
8 T.Glock (Marussia Virgin) 1:22.208, 57 laps
9 V.Petrov (Lotus Renault) 1:22.493, 65 laps
10 P.Maldonado (Williams) 1:22.591, 37 laps
11 J.Trulli (Team Lotus) 1:23.216, 40 laps

Final ranking day 1 (10/02) :
1 F. Massa (Ferrari) 1:20.709, 101 laps
2 S. Perez (Sauber) 1:21.483, 94 laps
3 Mr. Webber (Red Bull) 1:21:522, 94 laps
4D. Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) 1:21.755, 31 laps
5 L. Hamilton (McLaren) 1:21.914, 58 laps
6 J. Alguersuari (Toro Rosso) 1:22.689, 42 laps
7 A. Sutil (Force India) 1:23.472, 28 laps
8 V. Petrov (Lotus Renault) 1:23.504, 57 laps
9 N. Rosberg (Mercedes GP) 1:23.963, 67 laps
10 J. Trulli (Team Lotus) 1:24.458, 54 laps
11 T. Glock (Virgin F1) 1:25.086, 42 laps
12 P. Maldonado (Williams) 1:34.968, 13 laps