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Formula One
F1: Hulkenberg Fastest For Force India In Barcelona
Nico Hulkenberg clocked in quickest out of 10 drivers who turned laps on Wednesday...
Adam Cooper  | http://www.speedtv.com  |  Posted February 22, 2012   Barcelona (ESP)
Nico Hulkenberg paced day two of Barcelona testing in the Force India. (Photo: Getty Images)
Nico Hulkenberg topped the times for Force India as testing continued at Barcelona Wednesday.

With all four Pirelli compounds on hand this week – including the supersoft – most teams focused on trying the full range, with some opting to do longer runs.

As with Tuesday, there were a lot of mechanical problems up and down the pitlane. The drivers concerned thus lost valuable time on their last day of this test before handing their cars to their teammates for Thursday.

Force India has looked good from the start of testing in Jerez, although the team lost a whole day there when test driver Jules Bianchi crashed on his first lap. Since then, the team has clearly made up for lost time.

“We started the day with some aero work – trying some constant speed runs and collecting more data,” said Hulkenberg. “Then, the rest of the day was spent working on the balance of the car and trying out all four tire compounds. I did some short runs, long runs and just got a feel for the tire characteristics and how the car reacts to them. Once again, the car has been very drivable all day and our baseline setup has proved to be a good starting point for running all the different compounds.”

Sergio Perez was second fastest for Sauber, the Mexican having lost some time with an exhaust issue in the afternoon. Other than that, Sauber reported that it was a good day.

“Today was a lot better, even though in the end we lost a bit of track time because of the exhaust problem,” said the Mexican. “I am happy with how things went. We have gathered plenty of information to go through now and I believe we are working in the right direction. I hope we get some more work done with Kamui (Kobayashi, teammate) driving the next two days, and then we will be well-prepared for next week’s final pre-season test session.”

Sebastian Vettel was third for Red Bull, the German successfully running a race distance in the afternoon.

“I’m happy that we got a lot of laps done,” said Vettel. “Unfortunately, we had a little bit of a problem. It was small, but with testing you stop whenever there’s a issue, take a look and see what’s what and that always takes up a bit of time. But nevertheless, in the afternoon I was quite happy. We got a lot of laps done, more than 100, so we got through most of the program.

“I think we are on the right road with the car. The first impressions at the last test were fine. The car reacted the way we expected. I keep talking about the loss of downforce compared to last year, as we don’t have the tools we had, but this is the same for everyone, not just us. So, we’ll get on top of it and we’ll spend the coming days trying to make improvements, find more performance and make the car faster.”

Mark Webber takes over the RB8 Thursday.

Fernando Alonso was next in the times, Ferrari reporting that it had worked through its planned program before Felipe Massa takes the car on Thursday.

Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo was fifth, having lost a lot of time in the afternoon with a driveshaft problem. He ran only 48 laps, which was frustrating for the Aussie.

“The afternoon did not go to plan,” he said. “But the morning was positive and we did all the runs we had planned for the first part of the day. We worked on making adjustments to the car balance, also trying some different mechanical changes to the car, which is why I did mainly short runs. I could feel the effect of these changes and the car reacted in the way we expected.”

Lewis Hamilton was sixth for McLaren after a quiet day for the team, while Nico Rosberg was seventh for Mercedes after losing time with an oil leak.

“It was good to get into proper testing today,” said Rosberg. “Early in the morning, it was a bit too cold on the track to collect some decent information. However, later we were able to get into our planned work. In the afternoon session, unfortunately we had a transmission oil leak which meant that I wasn't able to complete any further running. That doesn't affect my positive feelings about our test program, and things like that can happen in the early stages of running a new car. Now I am looking forward to driving again on Friday.”

Also running were Williams test driver Valterri Bottas, Caterham newcomer Vitaly Petrov and Marussia’s Charles Pic, the later still using the 2011 Virgin chassis.

Unofficial Wednesday test times from Barcelona:
1. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, 1:22.608, 112 Laps
2. Sergio Perez, Sauber, 1:22.648, 85 Laps
3. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, 1:22.891, 104 Laps
4. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, 1:23.180, 87 Laps
5. Daniel Ricciardo, Toro Rosso, 1:23.639, 50 Laps
6. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, 1:23.806, 120 Laps
7. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1:24.555, 82 Laps
8. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, 1:25.738, 117 Laps
9. Vitaly Petrov, Caterham, 1:26.605, 69 Laps
10. Charles Pic, Marussia*, 1:27.343, 108 Laps
* 2011 car

Adam Cooper notched up his 27th season as a racing journalist in 2011. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.
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