Kobayashi leads Day 2 at Jerez
11 February 2010

Kamui Kobayashi and the Sauber team finished quickest as the sun finally shone on Jerez when testing continued on Thursday. The Japanese driver topped the timesheets by producing a last-gasp effort, with Sébastien Buemi having been quickest for most of a day which was punctuated by three red flag periods.

It was the fifth pre-season test day of the year on Thursday and the second at the southwestern Spanish venue after rain had forced teams to modify their programmes on Wednesday. After a dry start, a sprinkling from the skies just under 40 minutes in appeared to signal more woe for the drivers although the shower proved to be light and brief.

For the first time this week, spectators were able to enjoy blue skies and temperatures in the mid teens as umbrellas remained out of sight. After rainfall of 10 millimetres had been recorded 24 hours earlier, track temperatures had reached 27°C (81°F) by 3pm.

Hülkenberg's Williams caused the first of three red flags on Thursday
Three stoppages ensured there was work extra work to be done for certain teams, as the first red flags flew just before 9:30am due to a technical problem for Nico Hülkenberg; the stoppage was the second to be caused by a Williams so far in 2010 after Rubens Barrichello ground to a halt in Valencia last Monday.

Buemi set the day's first flying lap once the green flags flew a quarter of an hour later, remaining at the top of the timesheets for most of the day with an eventual best effort of 1:20.026, nine tenths of a second quicker than Rosberg's leading lap time of yesterday. It was Kobayashi who was on P1, however, as the Japanese Sauber driver managed one last flying lap after the final stoppage.

Button, seen alongside Kubica, parked the McLaren due to a warning alarm
Champion Jenson Button and McLaren were third on the timesheets, just under seven tenths slower, as the Woking team ran with a component which closed off the oil cooler in-let on the roll hoop. Jenson was forced to make his way back to the pits, however, after causing the day's final red flag when stopping just over ten minutes before the end of the session.

Glock's Virgin was consigned to the pit lane due to a front wing mounting problem
The second of the stoppages was the most dramatic, though, as the front wing flew off the Virgin of Timo Glock on the approach to Turn 1 at 11:10am With marshals having to clear debris from the race track, the team released a statement just over two hours later which confirmed that it would not be able to take any further part due to a lack of components; after just five laps yesterday and 11 today, Glock was forced to remain in the garage, with more car parts set to delivered to the track as soon as possible. Lucas di Grassi will be driving the Cosworth-powered VR-01 on Friday.

Alonso's Ferrari completed more laps than any other car (129)
Fernando Alonso's day involved a long stint early in the afternoon, which saw the Spaniard's Ferrari pushing its tyres on a heavy fuel load before setting a personal best time on the final lap of the run, his 79th of the day. After leaving the pits to commence his 100th lap at 3:40pm, there was delight for the Spanish crowd as the former double World Champion overtook the Red Bull of Mark Webber on his way to seventh overall.

Hülkenberg and Liuzzi were both in the top five for Williams and Force India as 7-time World Champion Michael Schumacher began the first of two days at the wheel in Jerez, with the second being Saturday; the German drove a total of 124 laps - second only to Alonso's 129 - on his way to registering a best of 1:21.083.

Liuzzi remained positive about the performance of his car, although tyre work saw the Italian suffering with understeer and graining as he collected much valuable data.

Robert Kubica was on-track in the Renault; although Russian team-mate Petrov had been due to drive once again, the Enstone team elected to run the more experienced Pole in the fear that Thursday could be the only chance to make the most of dry running time.

The Kraków man ended up eighth out of ten cars, with Webber and Red Bull finishing a so far low-key test ninth. The Australian did manage a sum of 99 laps on this occasion, however, after circulating only 50 times following a loss of four hours due to technical problems on Wednesday.


Testing will continue in Jerez at 9am local time on Friday (GMT +1)

 

I like Kobayashi. B***s to the wall.

 

I'm looking forward to a strong season by Kob Salad.

 

chose him on my fantasy team.....I think he'll do good this season

 

+1 to Raul and Alzilla.

He's a very good driver.

And he was the first person I bought on my fantasy team.