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Formula 1
F1: Maldonado Fastest For Williams In Barcelona
The Williams of Pastor Maldonado moved to the top of the time sheet on Thursday in Barcelona...
Pastor Maldonado is preparing for his second season with Williams. (Photo: Getty Images)
Pastor Maldonado gave the Williams team some encouragement by topping the times on the third day of testing at Barcelona.
The Venezuelan set the time on supersoft tires in the more favorable conditions of the morning, and as ever, it’s hard to make any firm judgements on what the times meant.
“It was a good day today, as we completed all of our planned program with no issues," said Maldonado. "We have put more mileage on the car which is great for everyone here and back at the factory as we now have a lot more data to analyze. The car is progressing well and I feel everything is going in the right direction.”
"It has been a very pleasing day with Pastor successfully completing his whole run plan, covering 106 trouble-free laps," added Williams engineering boss Mark Gillan. "We started with some aerodynamic correlation runs, followed by race weekend preparation and setup optimization. In the background, we also ran some bodywork cooling sweeps throughout the day.”
Mercedes continued to make good progress with the new W03, Michael Schumacher running a 59-lap race simulation, including live pit stops. Nico Rosberg takes over the car again Friday.
“I'm very happy with the race simulation that we ran this afternoon,” said Schumacher. “It confirmed what we have seen from the first tests with our new car, and that we don't seem to have any big issues with reliability. The small things from the last two days I would rate as typical testing issues.
“So from my side, I am happy with our first full testing session, and we have definitely improved our game which is what we wanted to achieve. To what extent, we can only see later, but I am finishing with a positive feeling.”
Kamui Kobayashi took over the Sauber and had what the team called a productive run, which included comparing two different rear wings.
“It was my first day of driving the new car here in Barcelona, and it was a good one,” said Kobayashi. “We had no noteworthy problems all day and went through a lot of test items. I can feel we have made some progress compared to the test in Jerez. But, of course, we have a lot more work to do and there is room for improvement.”
The McLaren MP4-27 continued to show good reliability as Jenson Button logged the laps. He set the fourth best time of the day.
“We’ve done a lot of reliability work over the past three days – more than 100 laps on each day,” said Button. “Most of that has been longer runs, getting used to the feeling of the car over a long run, and setup work for the longer runs.
“We’ve also been really working hard to understand this year’s Pirelli tires and getting the car to work efficiently around them. That’s a key part of the program this winter. There are a lot of cars out there that look competitive, so we’ll keep pushing. We should hopefully bring our upgrade package to the next test and that will see us through to the first race in Melbourne.”
Jean-Eric Vergne was fifth for Toro Rosso after what the team described as a trouble-free day. The Frenchman, one of only two rookies in the 2012 field, spent some time practicing pit stops.
“It’s good to be back in the car after Jerez. We got through a lot of work today, including some aero evaluation and different setups," he said. "We ran all day long on the medium tires, which gives us a good baseline to analyze the data. We are learning more about our new car with every lap and it has performed well on this Barcelona track which is always a true test of how a car is performing.
“Towards the end of the day, I had my first experience of proper Formula One pit stops. It was a scary feeling at the beginning, coming in at 100 kilometers per hour and seeing so many people. At first, I was worried about hitting someone, but by the end I had got used to it. It’s an exciting experience!”
Not for the first time Red Bull experienced reliability issues, Mark Webber losing track time with a gearbox problem in the morning. However, in the afternoon he did a race distance without drama, ending the day with the sixth best time.
“Not the smoothest of mornings and we didn’t get too many laps done there,” said Webber. “But in the afternoon the race simulation went OK. We’re still learning plenty. It would have been nice to have done a few more laps, but I think everyone always wants to get 20 or 30 more and, even with the problem this morning, there were loads of positives to look at. We’re a very ambitious team, so we’ll keep working on that.”
Felipe Massa ran 84 laps for Ferrari, focusing on the hard tire, which may help to explain why he was seventh.
After Nico Hulkenberg’s headline times Wednesday, it was a quieter day for Paul Di Resta at Force India as the team focused on aero work. A lost engine cover cost some time.
“Quite an intense day and a very busy afternoon, but the main thing is that we achieved the objectives for the day,” said the Scot. “There will be a lot of analyzing tonight to see what we can learn, especially trying to understand the data from the long runs this afternoon. Once we’ve been through the numbers, it should give us a direction for tomorrow. As I said in Jerez, it’s nice to have a car with such a good baseline because it makes it easier to experiment with the setup and that’s what we’re trying to do at the moment.”
Timo Glock made his first appearance of the winter for Marussia in the 2011 Virgin, and was faster than Vitaly Petrov, who had his second day in the Caterham. The Russian lost some time with a front suspension problem in the morning.
“We spent quite a bit more time today looking at various areas of the car to help me find a setup I’m really comfortable with and can push on from,” said Petrov. “Once we’d sorted out this morning’s issue we were able to try a few different setup options in the afternoon and by the last couple of runs I think we were heading in the right direction, both mechanically and with the different tire compounds.”
Unofficial Thursday test times from Barcelona:
1. Pastor Maldonado, Williams, 1:22.391, 106 Laps
2. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes, 1:23.384, 127 Laps
3. Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber, 1:23.582, 99 Laps
4. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1:23.918, 114 Laps
5. Jean-Eric Vergne, Toro Rosso, 1:24.433, 78 Laps
6. Mark Webber, Red Bull, 1:24.771, 97 Laps
7. Felipe Masssa, Ferrari, 1:24.771, 84 Laps
8. Paul di Resta, Force India, 1:25.646, 83 Laps
9. Timo Glock, Marussia*, 1:26.173, 108 Laps
10. Vitaly Petrov, Caterham, 1:26.448, 70 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.
The Venezuelan set the time on supersoft tires in the more favorable conditions of the morning, and as ever, it’s hard to make any firm judgements on what the times meant.
“It was a good day today, as we completed all of our planned program with no issues," said Maldonado. "We have put more mileage on the car which is great for everyone here and back at the factory as we now have a lot more data to analyze. The car is progressing well and I feel everything is going in the right direction.”
"It has been a very pleasing day with Pastor successfully completing his whole run plan, covering 106 trouble-free laps," added Williams engineering boss Mark Gillan. "We started with some aerodynamic correlation runs, followed by race weekend preparation and setup optimization. In the background, we also ran some bodywork cooling sweeps throughout the day.”
Mercedes continued to make good progress with the new W03, Michael Schumacher running a 59-lap race simulation, including live pit stops. Nico Rosberg takes over the car again Friday.
“I'm very happy with the race simulation that we ran this afternoon,” said Schumacher. “It confirmed what we have seen from the first tests with our new car, and that we don't seem to have any big issues with reliability. The small things from the last two days I would rate as typical testing issues.
“So from my side, I am happy with our first full testing session, and we have definitely improved our game which is what we wanted to achieve. To what extent, we can only see later, but I am finishing with a positive feeling.”
Kamui Kobayashi took over the Sauber and had what the team called a productive run, which included comparing two different rear wings.
“It was my first day of driving the new car here in Barcelona, and it was a good one,” said Kobayashi. “We had no noteworthy problems all day and went through a lot of test items. I can feel we have made some progress compared to the test in Jerez. But, of course, we have a lot more work to do and there is room for improvement.”
The McLaren MP4-27 continued to show good reliability as Jenson Button logged the laps. He set the fourth best time of the day.
“We’ve done a lot of reliability work over the past three days – more than 100 laps on each day,” said Button. “Most of that has been longer runs, getting used to the feeling of the car over a long run, and setup work for the longer runs.
“We’ve also been really working hard to understand this year’s Pirelli tires and getting the car to work efficiently around them. That’s a key part of the program this winter. There are a lot of cars out there that look competitive, so we’ll keep pushing. We should hopefully bring our upgrade package to the next test and that will see us through to the first race in Melbourne.”
Jean-Eric Vergne was fifth for Toro Rosso after what the team described as a trouble-free day. The Frenchman, one of only two rookies in the 2012 field, spent some time practicing pit stops.
“It’s good to be back in the car after Jerez. We got through a lot of work today, including some aero evaluation and different setups," he said. "We ran all day long on the medium tires, which gives us a good baseline to analyze the data. We are learning more about our new car with every lap and it has performed well on this Barcelona track which is always a true test of how a car is performing.
“Towards the end of the day, I had my first experience of proper Formula One pit stops. It was a scary feeling at the beginning, coming in at 100 kilometers per hour and seeing so many people. At first, I was worried about hitting someone, but by the end I had got used to it. It’s an exciting experience!”
Not for the first time Red Bull experienced reliability issues, Mark Webber losing track time with a gearbox problem in the morning. However, in the afternoon he did a race distance without drama, ending the day with the sixth best time.
“Not the smoothest of mornings and we didn’t get too many laps done there,” said Webber. “But in the afternoon the race simulation went OK. We’re still learning plenty. It would have been nice to have done a few more laps, but I think everyone always wants to get 20 or 30 more and, even with the problem this morning, there were loads of positives to look at. We’re a very ambitious team, so we’ll keep working on that.”
Felipe Massa ran 84 laps for Ferrari, focusing on the hard tire, which may help to explain why he was seventh.
After Nico Hulkenberg’s headline times Wednesday, it was a quieter day for Paul Di Resta at Force India as the team focused on aero work. A lost engine cover cost some time.
“Quite an intense day and a very busy afternoon, but the main thing is that we achieved the objectives for the day,” said the Scot. “There will be a lot of analyzing tonight to see what we can learn, especially trying to understand the data from the long runs this afternoon. Once we’ve been through the numbers, it should give us a direction for tomorrow. As I said in Jerez, it’s nice to have a car with such a good baseline because it makes it easier to experiment with the setup and that’s what we’re trying to do at the moment.”
Timo Glock made his first appearance of the winter for Marussia in the 2011 Virgin, and was faster than Vitaly Petrov, who had his second day in the Caterham. The Russian lost some time with a front suspension problem in the morning.
“We spent quite a bit more time today looking at various areas of the car to help me find a setup I’m really comfortable with and can push on from,” said Petrov. “Once we’d sorted out this morning’s issue we were able to try a few different setup options in the afternoon and by the last couple of runs I think we were heading in the right direction, both mechanically and with the different tire compounds.”
Unofficial Thursday test times from Barcelona:
1. Pastor Maldonado, Williams, 1:22.391, 106 Laps
2. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes, 1:23.384, 127 Laps
3. Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber, 1:23.582, 99 Laps
4. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1:23.918, 114 Laps
5. Jean-Eric Vergne, Toro Rosso, 1:24.433, 78 Laps
6. Mark Webber, Red Bull, 1:24.771, 97 Laps
7. Felipe Masssa, Ferrari, 1:24.771, 84 Laps
8. Paul di Resta, Force India, 1:25.646, 83 Laps
9. Timo Glock, Marussia*, 1:26.173, 108 Laps
10. Vitaly Petrov, Caterham, 1:26.448, 70 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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