Barrichello and Brawn continue to give their opposition food for thought (LAT)
Brawn's Rubens Barrichello was quickest on the opening day of running at the Jerez circuit on Sunday.
As the final preseason test prior to Melbourne kicked off, the Brazilian driver outpaced the Renault of Fernando Alonso and the Williams-Toyota of Nico Hulkenberg, as Brawn continued their highly impressive performances since their new BGP001 chassis first turned a wheel nine days ago.
"We had a good day of testing today completing over a hundred laps" said Barrichello afterwards. "It is hotter in Jerez than it was in Barcelona last week and therefore more representative of the temperatures that we can expect for the first few races, so it is good preparation for myself and the car. The car ran very well once again and we are increasing our understanding of its characteristics every day."
The other major talking point of the day was Fernando Alonso losing control of his Renault R29 in the morning running and damaging the front end of his car, which needed required lengthy repairs, much to the disappointment of the large crowd which had turned out to see their local driver. The Spaniard was back out for the afternoon session, completing a total of 40 laps and ending the day 0.583s adrift of Barrichello's 1m29.236s standard.
"Unfortunately I made a mistake this morning which was a shame as we lost a lot of track time, but sometimes this happens in testing when you are looking for the limits of the car" said Alonso. "This afternoon the team put the car together as soon as possible and we tried to complete our main priorities for the day, which was testing some new parts on the car. In the end we managed to do it and we were pleased with the results, although we certainly would have liked more laps."
Williams test driver Hulkenberg brought up the rear of the trifecta of cars on-track on Sunday, 0.779s slower than Barrichello. The test continues until Thursday.
