BARCELONA TEST 2DAY ONE Driver: Mark WebberCar: RB9Laps: 90 lapsBest time: 1:22.693Circuit length: 4.655kmFastest lap: M. Webber (1:22.693)
WEBBER FASTEST IN WET AND WINDY BARCELONA
The final pre-season test kicked off today at Barcelonas Circuit de Catalunya and, as widely predicted, the weather played a major part in proceedings. Starting on a damp track the morning session was given over to running on intermediate and full wet tyres as overnight wet weather turned into heavy rain before lunch. The downpours abated after the break, however, and Mark Webber was able to put in the days fastest lap just before the end of the session. Aftewards, Mark admitted that the rain hadnt been the only difficulty, with strong winds also making running tricky.
It was pretty heavy, I must say. There was a big tailwind down to Turn One, he said. And in other sections it was pretty dusty. The level of wind wasnt trivial but to be honest it was tricky enough anyway because of the greasy conditions on the track. We only got one hour at the end of the day in more stable conditions. We opted to put on a couple of sets of tyres at the end and see how it went and it was OK. Weve still got more to come, but that was the most we could get done in a short limited programme in dry conditions at the end of the day.
Race Engineering Co-ordinator Andy Damerum said: Were pretty pleased with how it went today, especially after the start to the session. It rained overnight and the track was quite damp this morning. That obviously forced us to adapt the run plan a bit, but we did get a lot of mileage on the full wet tyres, which was very good, as we didnt run those last week. In terms of what we went through, it was mostly just mechanical and set-up work. Overall, a good day and now well have to see what the weather has in store for us tomorrow when Seb will be driving.
Monday Testing Times
1. Mark Webber Red Bull 1m22.693s 90 laps2. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m24.348s + 1.655s 1133. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1m25.017s + 2.324s 594. Valtteri Bottas Williams 1m26.458s + 3.765s 855. Sergio Perez McLaren 1m26.538s + 3.845s 1006. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1m26.574s + 3.881s 927. Paul di Resta Force India 1m27.107s + 4.414s 578. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m27.541s + 4.848s 1129. Max Chilton Marussia 1m28.166s + 5.473s 7810 Charles Pic Caterham 1m28.644s + 5.951s 8311 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1m34.928s + 12.235s 52
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