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Formula One
F1: Hamilton Struggles, Alonso Quickest
Fernando Alonso returned to the top of the scoring charts on Monday, as Lewis Hamilton was more than a second adrift of the Spaniard and Brawn's Rubens Barrichello.
SPEED Staff  |  Posted March 16, 2009   Jerez (ESP)

Renault's Fernando Alonso pipped the Brawn-Mercedes drivers to finish Monday as the quickest driver at Jerez de la Frontera.

Alonso's time delighted the fans who turned out to see their hero (LAT)
Completing his final preseason tune-up before handing the car over to Nelson Piquet on Tuesday, Alonso provided the perfect tonic after he crashed on Sunday, lapping the Spanish circuit in a time of 1m18.343, and completing 103 laps as the team worked through a full day's programme.

An enthusiastic Alonso said "I'm happy with the day as we did more than 100 laps which was our target for my final day of winter testing. This has been the first time we have run on a really hot track and the information we have from today will be very useful for the first few races, which are usually very hot."

"I'm also a bit sad that this is the final test of the year with my test team, but I will see them at the factory soon. I have to say thanks for the amazing job they have done this winter because we are really well prepared for the new season. We can go to Australia knowing that we have maximised the time we had available."

Chief test engineer Christian Silk echoed Alonso's sentiments in regards the weather, as the track temperatures topped out at 35C (95F). "The conditions were good for testing as it was hot which leaves us well prepared for Melbourne and overall we we're happy with the results that we've got" he said.

Meanwhile, the Brawn chassis was split between the returning Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello, who topped the times on Sunday and finished just 0.055s adrift of Alonso on Monday. Meanwhile, Button's planned race simulation came to an end after only 12 laps when a gearbox failure left him stranded on the circuit, but he was still only half a second away from Barrichello's best time. It all meant that for the first time since last Tuesday in Catalunya, a test day ended without a Brawn-Mercedes being quickest. Button will continue in the car tomorrow for their final day of running.

Mclaren appeared for the first time on Monday, with Lewis Hamilton at the wheel, but the team continued to struggle and despite completing 87 laps, the world champion could not get within 1.170s of Alonso's R29, and perhaps even more concerning, he was 0.621s away from Button's best time in the Brawn driver's abbreviated race simulation.

Bringing up the rear on Monday was Williams' Nico Rosberg, who will again be present on Tuesday before handing over to Kazuki Nakajima. Despite the slow times, test team manager Dickie Stanford said "we completed a very full programme, with the majority of laps spent on set-up work".
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