F1: Button Fastest On First Day Of 2013 Testing

Formula 1

F1: Button Fastest On First Day Of 2013 Testing

Jenson Button's McLaren led Day One of testing in Jerez...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted February 05, 2013 Jerez (ESP)

Jenson Button stands by Tuesday during testing in Jerez, Spain. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Jenson Button topped the times for McLaren on the first day of the Jerez test, although it was not a trouble-free debut for the new car.

Indeed, the big news of the day was the teething problems faced by two of the major players. Button himself suffered an early fuel-pump failure – the item had been redesigned by Mercedes over the winter after McLaren had problems last year. Button lost a lot of time in the morning, but was able to complete some laps later on.

Less lucky was Nico Rosberg, who had a wiring loom fault that caused a small fire on the Mercedes. The team opted to address the problem, so he did not run again, having completed just 14 laps.

Nevertheless, the German was happy with his brief run: “Very good, very positive. I can’t say whether it was quick or not, but feeling-wise, it was very comfortable. I could push, the balance was OK. It was enjoyable, very enjoyable to drive.”

Mark Webber was fastest for much of the day, before being demoted to second. Christian Horner said he was happy with the performance of the new RB9.

“Today is a really a data gathering exercise, but everything is running reasonably to plan,” said the Red Bull boss. “We’re getting a lot of good data. It’s good to be blowing off the winter cobwebs.

“The goal this week is to learn a bit more about the car, to complete as many laps as we can, ideally. It’s a get-to-know-you process. We’re working to a program and just ticking a lot of boxes at the moment.”
Behind Button and Webber, Romain Grosjean was third fastest for Lotus, although the Frenchman did a relative modest amount of laps.

Paul Di Resta was fourth for Force India, ahead of the Toro Rosso of Daniel Ricciardo and the Ferrari of Felipe Massa.

Nico Hulkenberg had his first run for Sauber, and finished the day in seventh, ahead of Rosberg.

The only team not running its new car was Williams, with Pastor Maldonado in action in an updated 2012 model. The Venezuelan was ninth fastest.

Two brand new cars were launched in the pitlane at the start of the day, with Caterham showing the CT03, and Marussia the MR02. Inevitably, they were at the bottom of the timing charts, with the progress of Marussia’s Max Chilton not helped by an off-track excursion after a suspension problem, which ended running for the day.

Pos Driver Car Time Laps
1. Jenson Button...McLaren-Mercedes...1m18.861...37
2. Mark Webber...Red Bull-Renault...1m19.709...73
3. Romain Grosjean...Lotus-Renault...1m19.796...54
4. Paul Di Resta...Force India-Mercedes...1m20.343...89
5. Daniel Ricciardo...Toro Rosso-Ferrari...1m20.410...70
6. Felipe Massa...Ferrari...1m20.536...64
7. Nico Hulkenberg...Sauber-Ferrari...1m20.699...79
8. Nico Rosberg...Mercedes...1m20.846...14
9. Pastor Maldonado...Williams-Renault (2012)...1m20.864...84
10. Giedo van der Garde...Caterham-Renault...1m21.915...64
11. Max Chilton...Marussia-Cosworth...1m24.176...29

Adam Cooper notched up his 28th season as a racing journalist in 2012. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.