Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton finally tested on the same track for the first time this year and it was the Renault man who came out tops on day four at Jerez.
While Renault and McLaren were among those who tested in Jerez in February, Ferrari and BMW decided to head to the Middle East for action at the Sakhir Circuit.
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Former double World Champion Alonso and Renault laboured at the start of the 2009 pre-season testing programme, but the Spaniard proved on Wednesday that there was nothing wrong with their pace as he set the fastest time of 1.19:945.
Ferrari’s Raikkonen was three-tenths slower than Alonso while Nick Heidfeld completed the top three.
“I’m very happy with the result from this test as we had two trouble-free days, a very consistent car and the work we have done has been very useful,” Alonso said. “It was really windy today, especially from midmorning onwards, which made it difficult to understand some of the set-up changes, but all the teams were in the same position and we were still able to learn some important things about the car.”
World champion Lewis Hamilton of McLaren was seventh—over 1.3 seconds back of Alonso, his former McLaren teammate—from having to deal with the blustery conditions after missing out on the morning part of the session to fit new parts to the rear suspension.
A scant two hundredths behind Heidfeld at the close was Jarno Trulli, who had taken over from Monday and Tuesday pace-setting team-mate Timo Glock at Toyota. The Italian covered the most laps of any driver present with 131 on the board, as he spent the morning on set-up work and the afternoon conducting long runs - even if he bemoaned the strong winds as the elements continue to frustrate teams’ pre-season preparations.
Mark Webber wound up fifth-fastest for Red Bull Racing, Kazuki Nakajima took sixth spot in the Williams, just a second off the outright pace following 83 laps that took in preparation of the FW31 with a view to the Australian Grand Prix and beyond, including set-up work as well as tyre and aero testing.
Adrian Sutil brought up the rear of the order in Force India’s newly-launched VJM02, barely a tenth away from Hamilton after 79 laps in all, bringing the car’s total mileage to just over 1,000km since its debut on Sunday. In spite of the wind, the Silverstone-based squad was able to run through the majority of its scheduled programme, which included set-up evaluations, tyre comparisons and a number of test items. The team will continue its pre-season preparations at the Circuit de Catalunya alongside its rivals next week.
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