F1: Grosjean On Top Again In Barcelona

Formula 1

F1: Grosjean On Top Again In Barcelona

Romain Grosjean paces Barcelona winter testing a second straight day...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted March 02, 2012 Barcelona (ESP)

The Lotus of Romain Grosjean continues to run well in Barcelona testing. (Photo: Getty Images)

Romain Grosjean was fastest for Lotus for a second day as testing continued in Barcelona on Friday.

Fog led to a 30-minute delayed start in the morning, although the time was added on at the end of the day.

Grosjean ran 123 laps and completed a full race simulation over the course of another very satisfactory day for the team, which is still playing catch-up after missing the last test. He hands the car back to Kimi Raikkonen for tomorrow.

“I’m very happy with the car, and it was great that we could still run strongly at the end of the session, even after a long stint,” said the Franco-Swiss driver. “At the start of the day we suffered slightly with tire degradation, but we changed a few things and this improved as the day went on. Today was the first race distance I’ve completed in a long time and I’m feeling pretty good. No doubt my neck will be a little sore tomorrow, but the rest of me is fine!”

“The E20 was once again very reliable, and we completed a lot of laps,” added trackside operations director Alan Permane. “Romain wasn’t particularly happy with the car first thing this morning, but we steadily improved it over the day. In the afternoon we completed a full race distance including pit stops.

“We then went for a couple of setup runs at the end as we had a bit of time left over which was an unexpected surprise. Tire performance looks good; in particular during the last stint we used a set of hard tires and managed around 27 laps with very low levels of degradation which is encouraging.”

Jean-Eric Vergne was second for Toro Rosso, although the Frenchman lost a lot of valuable track time with an engine failure halfway through the day, and ran only 31 laps. The Ferrari unit was close to the end of its mileage.

“Of course it is a shame my winter testing ended with a less than satisfactory day, with not so many laps completed,” said Vergne. “However, yesterday we did a lot of running and the team still has two more days here with Daniel (Ricciardo), and I believe we can therefore make up for lost time. The day was not a complete washout, as we got some useful data in the morning, and did yet more pit stop practices this afternoon.”

Sebastian Vettel, one of the drivers to improve his time in the afternoon, was third for Red Bull.

Ferrari appeared to have a solid day, with Fernando Alonso running a lot of laps – one more than Grosjean – and setting the fourth best time. The team reported that “he worked on the setup of the F2012 and on aerodynamics, while in the afternoon, he did a Grand Prix simulation that was completed without any problems arising.”

Heikki Kovalainen bounced back from yesterday’s bout of food poisoning to take fifth place, which gave Caterham some encouragement.

“I’m pleased with how today has gone,” said the Finn. “I’m still not quite 100 percent after a bit of food poisoning kept me away from the track yesterday, but I’m pretty much over it and the way today has gone is good news.

“We keep going in the right direction and seem to have put the little issues that were holding us up behind us and the number of laps we’ve now run means I’m starting to be able to fine tune the setup and find a balance I’m really happy with. There’s still more to come in outright pace and we’ll work more on that tomorrow, but I think we can say this has been another good day for the whole team.”

Kamui Kobayashi was sixth for Sauber after losing an hour to a hydraulic issue.

“I am pretty happy with the car and its handling under race conditions,” said Kobayashi. “We wanted to improve compared to the last test, and we clearly did that. Obviously, we couldn’t do everything we had on our program, but I think we can compensate for that. We still have two days of testing left and I’m very much looking forward to being in the car again on Sunday. Of course it is too early to know where we are compared to the others, but the feeling is good.”

Nico Hulkenberg was another driver to spend some time waiting around for the car to be foxed after a driveline failure with the Force India. He finished the day in seventh place.

“The day started well with some setup work and new tires runs,” said the German. “But we had some downtime in the afternoon, which limited my mileage. It’s a bit frustrating, but we’ve had a pretty good winter so far and it’s nothing to worry about. I’ve got one more day in the car before we travel to Melbourne, so I will try to make the most of it and carry out a full race simulation.”

Michael Schumacher had a trip into the gravel in the morning and finished the day in a modest eighth place.

"The start of our day was something of a struggle this morning, partly down to me, as well, and it seemed as if the afternoon might start that way also," he said. "Fortunately, the session turned out well, and we achieved all of the test items that we wanted. So in the end, it was a positive day, but we will only see later how we stand compared to the other teams."

Lewis Hamilton was only ninth today but McLaren was keen to point out that the plan was to try setup changes rather than go for headline times. Tomorrow, Jenson Button will try a new batch of aero components.

Williams drivers Bruno Senna and Pastor Maldonado were at the bottom of the times as they concentrated on pit stop practice with lots of in and out laps, Maldonado also losing track time with a problem.

“Our focus today was on pit stop practice, which is important to do before we get into a live race situation,” said the Venezuelan. “Getting a clean, fast pit stop involves a combination of factors from both the team and driver. From my side, I have to position the car correctly in the box, get a good pull away from the stop and make sure I have clean in and out laps. We are trying many different things to improve all of these areas.”

“It is very important to practice as you come in at 100kph, the speed you would do on a motorway, and jump into a space just the size of the car,” said Senna. ”There is a lot of time to be made, and races can be decided by pit stops. I think we’ve really improved our performance today. I’m now looking forward to doing some stops in a race, and to being quick and precise when the pressure is on.”

Unofficial Friday test times from Barcelona:
1. Romain Grosjean, Lotus, 1:22.614, 124 Laps
2. Jean-Eric Vergne, Toro Rosso, 1:23.126, 45 Laps
3. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, 1:23.361, 85 Laps
4. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, 1:23.447, 125 Laps
5. Heikki Kovalainen, Caterham, 1:23.828, 104 Laps
6. Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber, 1:23.836, 77 Laps
7. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, 1:23.893, 36 Laps
8. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes, 1:23.978, 79 Laps
9. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, 1:24.111, 65 Laps
10. Bruno Senna, Williams, 1:24.925, 48 Laps
11. Pastor Maldonado, Williams, 1:25.801, 20 Laps

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.