Lotus’ Romain Grosjean topped the timesheets as the final pre-season test began at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya on Thursday. Grosjean’s best, a 1m 23.252s set late in the day, was a quarter of a second faster than that of the second-placed McLaren of Jenson Button.
With the weather dry and sunny, the 10 teams in action enjoyed a productive first day, with fastest runner Grosjean completing 71 laps in the E20. It was a welcome result for his team, who had to abandon last week’s session at the Spanish track after a chassis problem forced them back to their UK factory.
“The car was feeling very good and it’s great to bounce back from our dramas to set the fastest time of the day,” said Grosjean. “It’s clear we have solved the problem we encountered and now we have to complete a very full test programme this week. The feeling in the team is fantastic and it’s like last week’s issues never happened. My crew told me that the problems would make us stronger, and this is true. The chassis is stronger, and all the team is stronger. We gathered good data today and we have a few interesting things that we would like to confirm tomorrow which should help us make a good step forwards.
Article Courtesy of F1.com
Images Courtesy of GPUpdate.com
Unofficial Thursday test times from Barcelona:
1. Romain Grosjean, Lotus, 1:23.252, 73 Laps
2. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1:23.510, 64 Laps
3. Sergio Perez, Sauber, 1:23.820, 118 Laps
4. Mark Webber, Red Bull, 1:23.830, 102 Laps
5. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1:23.992, 128 Laps
6. Jean-Eric Vergne, Toro Rosso, 1:24.216, 113 Laps
7. Paul di Resta, Force India, 1:24.305, 98 Laps
8. Felipe Masssa, Ferrari, 1:24.318, 105 Laps
9. Vitaly Petrov, Caterham, 1:24.876, 123 Laps
10. Pastor Maldonado, Williams, 1:25.587, 58 Laps
With the weather dry and sunny, the 10 teams in action enjoyed a productive first day, with fastest runner Grosjean completing 71 laps in the E20. It was a welcome result for his team, who had to abandon last week’s session at the Spanish track after a chassis problem forced them back to their UK factory.
“The car was feeling very good and it’s great to bounce back from our dramas to set the fastest time of the day,” said Grosjean. “It’s clear we have solved the problem we encountered and now we have to complete a very full test programme this week. The feeling in the team is fantastic and it’s like last week’s issues never happened. My crew told me that the problems would make us stronger, and this is true. The chassis is stronger, and all the team is stronger. We gathered good data today and we have a few interesting things that we would like to confirm tomorrow which should help us make a good step forwards.
Article Courtesy of F1.com
Images Courtesy of GPUpdate.com
Unofficial Thursday test times from Barcelona:
1. Romain Grosjean, Lotus, 1:23.252, 73 Laps
2. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1:23.510, 64 Laps
3. Sergio Perez, Sauber, 1:23.820, 118 Laps
4. Mark Webber, Red Bull, 1:23.830, 102 Laps
5. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1:23.992, 128 Laps
6. Jean-Eric Vergne, Toro Rosso, 1:24.216, 113 Laps
7. Paul di Resta, Force India, 1:24.305, 98 Laps
8. Felipe Masssa, Ferrari, 1:24.318, 105 Laps
9. Vitaly Petrov, Caterham, 1:24.876, 123 Laps
10. Pastor Maldonado, Williams, 1:25.587, 58 Laps
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