Sunday 12 February 2012

F1 - Jerez Test Review - The main talking points

Grosjean was the fastest of all 2012 runners
Pre-season testing got underway last week in Jerez, Spain. The Spanish venue was blessed with bright sun all week whilst the rest of Europe was struck down by deep snow and sub zero temperatures.

11 of the teams were present ant of those, 9 were running their new 2012 cars. Mercedes and HRT ran 2011 cars whilst Marussia did not participate at all.

Raikkonen topped the times on his return
The returning Kimi Raikkonen led the opening day in the new Lotus E20 with a time of 1m19.670s. Force India's Paul Di Resta was the only other driver to post a sub 1 minutes 20 second time. Mclaren and Ferrari weren't high up the order with 8th and 9th place times for Jenson Button and Felipe Massa. Mark Webber didn't get much of a run in the new Red Bull RB8 due to some parts arriving late but he still managed to set the fourth fastest time.

This was only a minor setback though as on day 2, Webber set the fastest lap of all the 2012 cars, driving 97 laps throughout the day. Michael Schumacher in a 2011 Mercedes went fastest.

Caterham showed promise
De La rosa got seat time in a 2011 HRT
Mercedes continued to lead on Day 3 with Rosberg topping the times. Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton joined the test replacing Mark Webber, Felipe Massa and Jenson Button respectively. Force India reserve Jules Bianchi ended their running after only 2 laps with an excursion into the gravel damaging the car with new parts not available until the next day. Romain Grosjean of Lotus posted the fastest time of any 2012 car so far. Caterham's Giedo van der Garde  made his debut for the team setting the ninth fastest time with Senna making his Williams debut filling in the gap in 8th. Alonso carried on Ferrari's low key start with their radical F2012 with a 7th place time. Ferrari technical director Pat Fry later admitting he was unhappy with Ferrari's performaces so far.
McLaren had a low key start to 2012...

This was to change on the final day with Alonso topping the time sheets. This could've been down to low fuel runs but that information was not disclosed. The time set by Alonso was the second fastest of any 2012 car over the 4 days of testing. Nico Hulkenberg got his first taste of the new Force India car after Bianchi's crash the day before. Sauber brought out a red flag during the day after Kamui Kobayashi's C31 suffered a hydraulic leak.
...as did Ferrari
Mercedes faired well with their 2011 car










COMBINED TIMES FOR ALL 4 DAYS 


Pos  Driver         Team            Best time           Total laps
 1.  Rosberg        Mercedes        1m17.613s                174
 2.  Grosjean       Lotus              1m18.419s  +0.806   212
 3.  Schumacher     Mercedes    1m18.561s  +0.948   174
 4.  Alonso         Ferrari             1m18.877s  +1.264   106
 5.  Webber         Red Bull        1m19.184s  +1.571   151
 6.  Vettel         Red Bull           1m19.297s  +1.684   146
 7.  Hamilton       McLaren       1m19.464s  +1.851   166
 8.  Ricciardo      Toro Rosso    1m19.587s  +1.974   157
 9.  Vergne         Toro Rosso     1m19.597s  +1.984   159
10.  Raikkonen      Lotus           1m19.670s  +2.057   192
11.  Perez          Sauber              1m19.770s  +2.157   116
12.  Di Resta       Force India     1m19.772s  +2.159   170
13.  Kobayashi      Sauber          1m19.834s  +2.221   182
14.  Hulkenberg     Force India  1m19.977s  +2.364   90
15.  Senna          Williams          1m20.132s  +2.519   250
16.  Bianchi        Force India      1m20.221s  +2.608   46
17.  Massa          Ferrari              1m20.454s  +2.841   164
18.  Button         McLaren           1m20.688s  +3.075   147
19.  Maldonado      Williams      1m21.197s  +3.584   122
20.  Kovalainen     Caterham      1m21.518s  +3.905   167
21.  De la Rosa     HRT               1m22.128s  +4.515   108
22.  Trulli         Caterham            1m22.198s  +4.585   117
23.  Van der Garde  Caterham     1m23.324s  +5.711   74
 
 
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