Jenson Button fastest at Jerez

Before joining Barcelona (February 25-28), the eleven teams present in Jerez, far from the setbacks of Campos and USF1, had the opportunity to benefit from one last day in Andalusia. The skies of Jerez were clement and allowed the drivers to carry out a series of outings and the teams to collect data concerning the different settings on the dry track.

Lotus Racing took advantage of the opportunity to significantly increase its mileage, with 141 laps covered by Jarno Trulli, who succeeded Heikki Kovalainen. Mike Gascoyne, technical director of the team, welcomed this first session of four days of testing, which will allow certain improvements to be made.

Other drivers have accumulated more than a hundred laps, notably Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso, 139 turns) and Fernando Alonso (Ferrari, 137), two drivers supported this Saturday by a much larger Spanish public than on previous days of testing.

The fastest driver of the day was Jenson Button (McLaren), which turned in 1?18??871 after two hours of session. With this time, the reigning world champion sets the record for these eight days of testing on the Jerez circuit, being the only driver to have brought his car under 1?19??.

After these four days of testing, the stables of Formula 1 will meet in Barcelona, ​​starting next Thursday, for four more days. It will then be time to turn to Bahrain, scene of the first Grand Prix of the season (March 12-14).