F1: Hamilton Fastest As Rain Ends Barcelona Test

Formula 1

F1: Hamilton Fastest As Rain Ends Barcelona Test

Lewis Hamilton paced a wet final day of testing in Barcelona...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted February 22, 2013 Barcelona (ESP)

Lewis Hamilton put Mercedes on top on the final day of Barcelona testing. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

As expected, rain ruined the final day of the Barcelona test, with cold and windy conditions ensuring that the teams were unable to complete much meaningful running.

However, the day did give teams the opportunity to try wet and intermediate tires and focus on homework such as pit stop practice.

A brief dry spell just before lunch saw some running on slicks, and Lewis Hamilton took the opportunity to set the best time of the day for Mercedes. He became the eighth driver to top a session on the eight days of testing so far, with both drivers from Mercedes, McLaren, Ferrari and Lotus having made the headlines thus far. Red Bull has yet to finish a day on top.

“The conditions today meant that we didn’t complete as many laps we would have done in the dry,” said Hamilton. “But we have gone through the test items that we wanted to achieve this week. We have been working on our consistency over long runs and we managed one run this morning on dry tires; the car felt okay but the conditions were also very cool, so we cannot draw too many conclusions.”

Jenson Button was second fastest, some 0.6s off Hamilton, while the random nature of the day was emphasized by the fact that Jean-Eric Vergne was third for Toro Rosso and Jules Bianchi fourth for Force India.

“Another productive day, even with the rain,” said Bianchi. “We had many things to test, especially on the aero side, and I feel we got some good answers. Later, it was useful for me to drive on the Extreme and Intermediate Pirellis, and I got a good understanding of how they behave, even if the conditions were extremely cold, so it was actually surprising we had rain and not snow! Now I am looking forward to the final test, which will be very important for everyone.”

“It was good to be back working with the team today and to feel the car in all conditions when the track was both dry and wet,” said Bianchi. “It’s more useful experience for me. We did most of our dry running this morning and then did our aero work this afternoon when the track was wet. We didn’t manage to do the long runs we planned because it was so wet, but we still managed to look at a lot of things.”

Esteban Gutierrez was fifth for Sauber, and Giedo van der Garde sixth for Caterham, both drivers some way off the quickest dry laps.

Felipe Massa was one of several drivers to visit a gravel trap, and finished the day in seventh place, while Mark Webber was down in eighth and Romain Grosjean only 10th after not doing any dry running.

“I spent a lot of time in the car again today, but this time it was in the garage and not out on track,” said Grosjean. “It was certainly cold and slippery out on the circuit, and the conditions were worse than we would expect during the season.

“This at least meant it was a good test of the performance of the wet and intermediate tires. I’m happy that we had no issues and the balance of the car is good in these conditions. I’m really looking forward to getting more laps in the car next week and seeing the latest upgrade package, as I’m feeling very positive with everything I’ve seen so far.”

Williams concentrated on pit stop practice with both drivers coming in and out and not setting any proper lap times.

Testing resumes in Barcelona Feb. 28-Mar 3.

FRIDAY TIMES
Pos Driver Car Time Laps
1. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:23.282 52
2. Jenson Button McLaren 1:23.633 70
3. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:24.071 80
4. Jules Bianchi Sahara Force India 1:25.732 61
5. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:26.239 96
6. Giedo Van Der Garde Caterham 1:27.429 50
7. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:27.553 80
8. Mark Webber Red Bull 1:27.616 64
9. Max Chilton Marussia 1:29.902 51
10. Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:34.800 41
11. Valtteri Bottas Williams - 23
12. Pastor Maldonado Williams - 13

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.