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Hulkenberg’s Williams quickest on Day 2 in Barcelona

Written by: admin on 28th February 2010

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The Williams team had a great day in Barcelona, as Nico Hulkenberg topped the timesheets with a 1m 20.614s scorcher on Day 2 at the Circuit de Catalunya. He improved on his Day 1 time by an impressive 1.80 secs. Fernando Alonso was second fastest with a time of 1m 20.637s, a mere two-hundredth of a second behind Hulkenberg. BMW Sauber’s Pedro de la Rosa rounded the top 3 with a 1m 20.973s performance around the 4.655 kilometer track.

Williams used day 2 to evaluate a new sidepod aero evaluations, practicing starts & set-up work with the FW32. The adjustments worked like a charm and it showed on a visibly pleased Hulkenberg who said, “We’ve had a good test here. P1 today is nice but means nothing, to be honest. We’re not in Bahrain yet! It’s positive for the team, and for me, to know what the car can do though. We did a lot of set-up work today and have found some interesting things so I feel ready and confident to go to Bahrain now.”

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso overcame yesterday’s disappointment with a solid 134 lap run around the circuit. This amounts to a distance of about 620 kilometers. Pedro De la Rosa continues to impress with a P3 lap time of 1m 20.973s

Force India put it’s VJM03 through an intensive program as Vitantonio Liuzzi clocked a fastest time of 1m 21.056s, fourth quickest of the day. Pacing around a series of simulations and a momentary stoppage for a red flag and change of tyres, the Force India car performed reliably throughout the day. The team organized the day to collect performance data and test suspension components, fuel system and control systems testing. Liuzzi was also happy with the car’s reliability and said, “… it is responding very well and we are improving day by day so everything is looking positive. We still don’t know where we are relative to the others, and we will only see in Bahrain, but overall we can be really happy. We now have two more days of testing to try and get as much information as possible.” Force India will test day 3 with Adrian Sutil behind the wheel.

Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing) completing 125 laps today. His quickest lap of the day was a 1m 21.258s which puts in 5th position, although it is still two-tenth of a second better than yesterday’s fastest driver, team-mate Mark Webber. Such has been the improvement in speeds in these F1 cars and we expect the trend of falling times to continue as we approach the weekend. Torro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari came in sixth with a best time of 1m 21.571s.

Michael Schumacher of Mercedes GP team came seventh, as he completed 85 laps setting a quickest time of 1m 21.689s. Continuing the development programme, Michael worked on developing the balance and set-up of the car over longer runs along with further practice of the team’s race weekend procedures, including pit stops and practice starts. Michael seemed happy with the team’s performance and said, “We had a positive day but it was quite stop-start with some changes on the car and then the red flags towards the end of the day. We are working hard and even if the programme doesn’t run as smoothly as we would have liked, there is much more to come from the team both here and in Bahrain. We are working very well together and there is a good atmosphere within the team.” Nico Rosberg will be back in the car for day 3 of testing with Michael rounding off the testing on Sunday.

Lewis Hamilton was half-a-second off Schumacher’s pace as he came eighth on a 1m 22.172s effort. In an experimental shift, Hamilton started with shorter runs in the morning as the team went about refining set-up and evaluating tyres. Lewis benefited from these changes as he concentrated on a single long-distance run in the afternoon. Team-mate Jenson Button comes back tomorrow to fine tune the MP4-25.

Lotus Racing and Jarno Trulli finished 70 laps of the circuit on the Lotus Cosworth T127. His quickest of the day was a 1m 25.524s which clearly warrants more adjustments and testing on the car. Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne said that the team was able to identify some problems with the set up in the car and establish clear direction to improve it. He said that there were a couple of minor hydraulics issues which stopped the car on track, but nothing major. Trulli continues behind the wheel on day 3.

Time Sheets:
1. Nico Hulkenberg, Williams, 1m20.614, 99 laps
2. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, 1m20.637, 134 laps
3. Pedro de la Rosa, BMW Sauber, 1m20.973, 114 laps
4. Vitantonio Liuzzi, Force India Formula One, 1m21.056, 90 laps
5. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull Racing, 1m21.258, 125 laps
6. Jaime Alguersuari, Scuderia Toro Rosso 1m21.571 104 laps
7. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes GP, 1m21.689, 85 laps
8. Lewis Hamilton, Vodafone, McLaren Mercedes, 1m22.152, 93 laps
9. Robert Kubica, Renault, 1m24.912, 53 laps
10. Jarno Trulli, Lotus, 1m25.524, 70 laps
11. Timo Glock, Virgin Racing, 1m25.942, 52 laps

Photograph Copyright: Glenn Dunbar

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