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Rosberg quickest on Barcelona Day 3, Button impresses as well

Written by: admin on 28th February 2010

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Intermittent rain showers stifled testing in the morning for all 11 teams on day 3 at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya. It wasn’t until after lunch, when the weather cleared up and drivers were able to speed around the 4.655 km track running organized race simulations. Nico Rosberg of Mercedes GP took top honors today as he topped the timesheets with a 1m 20.686s run – almost a second faster than anyone else on the track. Sebastien Buemi on the Toro Rosso came second with a time of 1m 21.413s followed by McLaren’s Jenson Button who finished his day at 1m 21.450s.

Rosberg completed almost 600 kms around the circuit as this will be his last opportunity in pre-season testing before the big race in Bahrain. “We had a good day today and made some significant progress in terms of set-up which was nice to see. We hadn’t got the most out of the car in terms of performance over the last couple of days, but we made a step in the right direction today. The longer runs this afternoon were interesting. We learnt a lot as there were other cars running similar programmes at the same time so we were able to do some comparisons. There is still plenty of room to improve but overall we’re looking in pretty good shape”, Rosberg said. His team-mate Michael Schumacher will take over the MGP W01 tomorrow for the fourth and final day of the test.

Sebastien Buemi’s first day of testing (team-mate Jamie Alguesuari participated on day 1 and 2) went per plans as the STR5-02 clocked impressive times to finish on P2. The team repeated yesterday’s drill of pit-stop practices in the morning and race simulations in the afternoon. At the end of the session, Buemi said, “Despite the rain, my first day in Barcelona has gone well. Carrying out a race simulation was very useful and it was particularly interesting to see how the tyre behaviour changed depending on the fuel load. In the races, it will be important to drive smoothly, as on full tanks it is very easy to damage the tyres if you slide too much. Today was good and so we can try and improve a bit more tomorrow, our last chance before Bahrain.”

McLaren spent most morning running a number of shorter installation runs to establish set-up. However as the track dried after lunch, Jenson Button was able to complete a race simulation in the afternoon. The MP4-25 seems to have made much improvement over their showing on day 1 and 2. Lewis Hamilton will be running the car tomorrow, for the final day of pre-season testing

Williams continued set-up work & long run evaluations with the FW32 as Rueben Barrichelo covered 101 laps around the circuit. Inspite of the rain delays, Rueben said, “Everything that the team has brought to this test seems to be working well, so it’s been a positive day altogether.”

Felipe Massa completed 115 laps on the Ferrari to take 5th place. The F10 seemed off the pace as it delivered a highest of 1m 22.344s – almost 2 seconds off Alonso’s pace yesterday.

Adrian Sutil could complete just 61 laps, setting the seventh quickest time of the day, a 1m 22.606s. He seemed visibly disappointed for not having been able to have more time on the track. He will continue the test programme tomorrow and expecting a better weather. His chief race engineer, Dominic Harlow had this to say, “A slight change of plan today when the rain arrived, meaning that Adrian shook down a new chassis, but also completed a number of set-up tests rather than focusing on longer runs. It was difficult to conclude too much because of the track conditions, but we were able to uncover some useful items. With the final day of 2010 winter testing tomorrow expected to be dry, we are planning final race preparation work and aiming to complete as many of our test objectives as possible.”

Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing) recorded his fastest time (1m 23.123s) in his last lap of the day. Ian Morgan, Head of Race Engineering for RBR said, “We were late out this morning as we had a few technical issues following the overnight rebuild, which carried over into the planned programme for today. Once we were running in the afternoon we got three or four positive tests completed looking at set-up directions for Bahrain, which gave us some clear results – so we ended the session in much better shape.” Interestingly, Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber will share the driving duties tomorrow on the final day of testing tomorrow.

Jarno Trulli (Lotus Racing) finished 102 laps and seemed satisfied with timings and quality of the day’s activity. Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer commented “Another productive day with Jarno; over a hundred laps completed with no real mechanical issues and Jarno was able to complete the full race distance in the mix of wet and dry weather. We successfully completed our whole programme with the changeable conditions and have had two very useful days with Jarno in the car, with a very clear set up direction from him. Now we’re looking forward to further refining the balance of the car with Heikki tomorrow.” Team-mate Heikki Kovalainen takes the seat for the final day’s testing before the season starts in Bahrain.

1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes GP, 1m20.686, 128 laps
2. Sebastien Buemi, Scuderia Toro Rosso, 1m21.413, 106 laps
3. Jenson Button, McLaren Mercedes, 1m21.450, 105 laps
4. Rubens Barrichello, Williams, 1m21.975, 101 laps
5. Felipe Massa, Ferrari, 1m22.344, 115 laps
6. Vitaly Petrov, Renault, 1m22.523, 68 laps
7. Adrian Sutil, Force India Formula One, 1m22.606, 61 laps
8. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull Racing, 1m23.123, 51 laps
9. Jarno Trulli, Lotus, 1m25.059, 102 laps
10. Kamui Kobayashi, BMW Sauber, 1m26.216, 105 laps
11. Timo Glock, Virgin Racing, 1m26.305, 31 laps

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