Renault’s Fernando Alonso knocked the Brawn team off the top of the timesheets in Formula One’s final week of pre-season testing in Spain on Monday while McLaren continued to struggle.
Spain’s double world champion, who had crashed his R29 car on Sunday’s first day of testing, completed 103 laps of the southern Jerez circuit with a best time of one minute 18.343 seconds.
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Brazilian Rubens Barrichello, driving the former Honda car renamed as Brawn GP after new owner Ross Brawn, lapped in 1:18.398 with British team mate Jenson Button third fastest in 1:18.892 on a hot afternoon.
“I’m happy with the day as we did more than a 100 laps which was our target for my final day of winter testing,” said Alonso, who will hand over to team mate Nelson Piquet on Tuesday. “This has been the first time we have run on a really hot track and the information we have from today will be very useful for the first few races, which are usually very hot.”
“We are really well prepared for the new season,” he added. We can go to Australia knowing we have maximised the time we had available.”
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The British driver ended up fourth despite a trip across the gravel. McLaren, though, still have cause for concern as Hamilton was over a second off the pace.
Nico Rosberg, who replaced Nico Hulkenberg on day two, completed the timesheets in fifth place. The Williams driver was the busiest man on track, completing 123 laps.
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