Vettel Fastest On Third Day At Jerez
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Sep 18, 2008
Team Red Bull
Italian Grand Prix winner Sebastian Vettel was the fastest at Jerez on day three of testing with Red Bull Racing, his team for 2009.
In the rain-interrupted session, Vettel’s current team Toro Rosso tried out former Super Aguri driver Takuma Sato in the German’s absence.
Sato was one of three Japanese in action at the Jerez circuit in southern Spain with Kamui Kobayashi testing for Toyota and regular race driver Kazuki Nakajima in a Williams.
“The team was pleased with the work he did, clearly demonstrating his previous experience in a grand prix car,” Toro Rosso said in a statement after Sato lapped sixth fastest of the eight drivers.
“At the start of the day we were collecting aero data,” said Sato, who was hoping to press his claims for a race drive in 2009. “Then by the end of the morning we began timed runs, so I could really feel the car and I started to enjoy the laps.
“Unfortunately, in the afternoon it started to rain so we had to stop. That was a great shame as I was looking forward to proper running in the afternoon.”
BMW-Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld was second fastest with a lap of 1:18.167, ahead of Lucas di Grassi for Renault, as eight teams tested for the last time ahead of the final stretch of races.
“As we might have some rain during the forthcoming races, we took this opportunity to work on the car’s wet-weather setup,” Heidfeld said.
Lucas Di Grassi completed a second day of testing with Renault, the Brazilian going third fastest after 36 laps, all before the rain arrived. “A slightly challenging day for us as we didn’t get all the test results we wanted to and the day finished early due to poor weather,” commented Christian Silk, Renault’s chief test engineer. “However, we managed to cover the main items this morning, so it’s not been too bad and we’ve got some interesting data to go through this evening. Hopefully it will be dry tomorrow and we can get a good final day of testing in.”
