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Nick Heidfeld boosted his claims for the Renault drive as he set the fastest time on the third day of testing in Spain.
Heidfeld is hoping to be given the nod to replace Robert Kubica who is out after surgery on the serious injuries he sustained in a rally crash.
Heidfeld is amongst the candidates who have been mooted as a potential stand-in drivers and the German did himself no harm in Jerez with a best lap of one minute 20.361 seconds.
Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso was second quickest, 0.132 seconds slower than Heidfeld, although he spent most of the afternoon with a heavy fuel load doing longer runs in the F150th Italia.
Michael Schumacher was not far off the pace in the morning session and it showed as he set the third best time with Lewis Hamilton guiding McLaren’s new MGP W02 to fourth spot. SkySport
Kubica is expected to miss the entire F1 season after suffering multiple fractures and a partially severed right hand in a crash on a rally in Italy last Sunday.
Although Renault have said they are also considering former Force India driver Vitantonio Liuzzi, and intend to give third driver Bruno Senna some time in the car on Sunday, they made it clear that if Heidfeld impressed them on Saturday, the drive was his.
And it seems highly unlikely that Heidfeld could miss out on the drive after such a performance - not least because he would rely on the team’s backing to provide him with the car settings to be able to post such quick times.
World champion Vettel ended the day only sixth fastest overall, but his pace on longer runs appeared to underline the impression that the Red Bull is competitive. BBC Sport
“Testing has gone well today,” said the world champion. “It’s quite tricky with the rear wing; it acts in a similar manner to the F-duct last year, so naturally, as a driver, you want to use it as much as you can. When the tyres go off, it’s not as easy to use as when the tyres are fresh, but you get used to it. KERS is not so easy to use, but again it’s a case of getting used to it - its practice in the end.”
Sebastien Buemi returned to the Toro Rosso cockpit for the first time since last week’s Valencia test and went seventh in the STR6. In the morning, Buemi worked on a tyre comparison, trying Pirelli’s modified medium compound and, for the first time, the hard. His afternoon programme featured aerodynamic testing and a long run, although the latter was compromised by some red flags and the fact that the car stopped with around ten minutes of the session remaining.
Heikki Kovalainen set an encouraging seventh-fastest time for Lotus as he took over the T128 from team mate Jarno Trulli. The Finn also reported positive results from tests with the new moveable rear wing in simulated race conditions.
Rubens Barrichello was ninth for Williams after close to 100 laps in the new FW33. “After a couple of setup runs this morning we had a problem with the KERS onboard cooling system,” explained technical director Sam Michael. “We had to stop and remove some components to ensure the car was safe, and that cost us three hours. In the afternoon we made good progress with the aero set-up on long runs, with Rubens generating some good data for the wind tunnel.”
New Force India driver Paul di Resta was tenth as he got his first run in the team’s VJM04. “Today was really about me getting used to the new car, plus getting as much information about the new tyres and set-up options as possible,” said the Scot. “We’ve still got a bit of work to do, but today was about determining the right way to go.” Formula 1
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