Mercedes GP’s Nico Rosberg was quickest on a wet first day of running in Formula One’s latest pre-season test, held at Jerez in Spain.
The German set a best time of one minute 20.927 seconds around the 2.75-mile circuit early in the day before the wet weather arrived.
From then on, Rosberg’s time never looked like being beaten and he ended the day 0.104 seconds quicker than Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi.
Despite the conditions, Rosberg said he was happier with the W01 car than he had been in the first test at Valencia last week.
“The car felt very good today,” the 24-year-old said after completing 57 laps. “Compared to Valencia where I was sitting too low which affected my visibility and the set-up wasn’t perfect, today I felt really comfortable and I could push so it was an enjoyable day and a good start to the test for me.
“The rain is a little frustrating but the car feels good to drive and that’s what’s important.” Sky Sports
Just over a tenth down on Rosberg was Sebastien Buemi who took the second slot for Toro Rosso. Buemi spent the day evaluating Bridgestone’s wet tyres and various set-ups. He completed 84 laps and will continue to drive on Thursday. Third went to Williams’ Nico Hulkenberg, who was also the most productive driver of the day after completing 118 laps in the FW32.
Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso finished in fourth in the Italian team’s F10. Alonso, who covered 88 laps, worked on reliability testing and evaluating Bridgestone’s wet tyres. The Spaniard will be back in action on Thursday.
“The work was influenced by the bad weather, but nevertheless we managed to drive many kilometres,” said the Spaniard. “So we’re satisfied, because we could collect lots of data, which is important for the reliability. We hope that the weather is better tomorrow, because it’s important to drive on a dry track, too. The car went very well on the wet track though and it’s easy to drive. The feeling is good, just like on the dry. All in all I had some positive sensations today.”
Kamui Kobayashi clocked the fifth-fastest time for BMW Sauber, finishing over 1.5s ahead of the McLaren of reigning world champion Jenson Button. Kobayashi completed 55 laps in Ferrari-engined C29.
“Sadly the weather conditions were not as we would have liked,” said BMW Sauber’s head of track engineering, Giampaolo Dall’Ara. “Because of this we had to skip some mechanical and aero testing. Most of the time Kamui was running on intermediates. We did some set-up work, system checks and start practice.”
Force India’s VJM03 enjoyed a positive debut run, as Vitantonio Liuzzi covered 71 laps on his way to seventh in the times. Formula1
Red Bull, which finished second to Brawn in the championship last year, was ninth as Mark Webber drove the new RB6 car for the first time.
Webber experienced an oil leak early on which led to a precautionary engine change, and the wet conditions kept the Austrian team from really getting going.
Virgin Racing was the first rookie team at the testing session, with Timo Glock placing last with a best time of 1:38.734 from five laps. The British team was restricted to installation runs as it worked overnight to install new parts.
“Sadly, that meant we missed the dry-window, and we are not at a point where it is worth risking the car in wet running,” technical director Nick Wirth said. “As a result, we’ve kept things sensible and worked through the job list to prepare the car for tomorrow.”
Russian driver Vitaly Petrov was eighth for Renault. The Canadian Press
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