McLaren finish testing on top - Formula 1 news - GPUpdate.net


The McLaren team has completed Sunday at the top of the timesheets as pre-season testing came to a close in Barcelona. With qualifying simulation laps having taken place today, the overall pace is the closest to what can be expected at the first race of the season in Bahrain in two weeks' time.

With bright conditions at the Circuit de Catalunya accompanied by both warmer air and track temperatures, it was all together an easier day of running in Spain following a Saturday which had been punctuated by several small rain showers.

With the standard installation laps taking place at 9am, Virgin Racing and Force India were both pleased to see their cars on morale-boosting P1 during the early stages of the session before the 'big four' confirmed their statuses as the qualifying laps began.

With Hamilton's McLaren leading the way on a best effort of 1:20.472, the 2008 Champion eased out Mark Webber's Red Bull by just 24 thousandths of a second as the Milton Keynes team ran with both the Australian and Sebastian Vettel following a loss of time due to an oil pump change yesterday. With Felipe Massa only a further 43 thousandths down on Webber, the Brazilian confirmed Ferrari's place in the top three.

The day was split up by five red flag periods before the chequered flag flew at 5pm. Rubens Barrichello was the first to be stranded after spinning the Williams into the Turn 4 gravel at 10 o'clock; a hydraulics problem for the Paulista caused another stoppage at twenty past four.

The other reds flew for Kamui Kobayashi's Sauber, which stopped at Turn 9 at ten past eleven plus Turn 2 five hours later, disrupting Michael Schumacher's race simulation in the process; there were further frustrations when Heikki Kovalainen's Lotus ground to a halt on the inside of Turn 4 just ten minutes before the end of the afternoon.

 

times for today were as follows:

Driver - Team - Best Lap time - Laps
Hamilton - McLaren - 1:20.472 - 134
Webber - Red Bull - 1:20.496 - 61
Massa - Ferrari - 1:20.539 - 114
Sutil - Force India - 1:20.611 - 100
Vettel - Red Bull - 1:20.667 - 76
Schumacher - Mercedes - 1:20.745 - 123
Barrichello - Williams - 1:20.870 - 84
Kobayashi - Sauber - 1:20.911 - 67
Buemi - Toro Rosso - 1:22.135 - 88
Kubica - Renault - 1:23.175 - 107
Kovalainen - Lotus - 1:25.251 - 65
di Grassi - Virgin - 1:26.160 - 49

 

Get used to it TIFOSI!! I wish you all good luck and get ready to suck his fumes for the rest of the season, teammate included!!

 

This is what I like to hear.

 

Looks like almost everyone has gone to the integrated fairing.

This is very encouraging but doesn't really mean much. You know I love McLaren but I am cautious.

We'll see when the lights go out.

 

if you notice, red bull's is a single plane.