Vettel fastest while Lotus impress at Jerez

Feb.17 (YF1) Sebastian Vettel ended the first day of the second Jerez Formula 1 test sessions fastest of all in the Red Bull Racing RB6.

It was a trying day for teams as the weather once again hampered the full potential of the testing, with intermittent rain and long periods of damp track. Hence the final times were about 3 seconds off the fastest pace of the tests last week at the same circuit.

Vettel went on to notch up 99 laps and took advantage of a drier conditions after lunch to set the best time of 1 minute 22.593 seconds.

Second quickest by almost half a second was Lewis Hamilton in the McLaren Mercedes MP4-25 who racked up 72 laps in the process. The 2008 World Champion caused a red flag situation when his McLaren stopped out on track.

Felipe Massa was another one to cause a stoppage when the Ferrari F10 halted out on track, but nevertheless ended the day third quickest in the 72 laps he completed.

Sebastien Buemi in the Toro Rosso STR5 and Pedro de la Rosa in the Sauber C29 were again at the sharp end of the timing screens,  fourth and fifth respectively. Buemi tallying up 79 laps to De la Rosa’s 76.

Comeback champion Michael Schumacher drove the most laps, 111 in total, on his way to posting the sixth fastest time of the day in the Mercedes GP MGP W01.

Force India’s reserve driver Paul di Resta handled the morning stint at the wheel of the team’s VJM03 which included a spin for which the red flag was brought out. He went on to complete 74 laps. Later in the day Adrian Sutil took over the cockpit, albeit for 28 laps, and went on to post the seventh fastest time, almost a second faster than Di Resta with the eighth quickest time, however the conditions differed on their respective outings.

Russian rookie Vitaly Petrov was ninth fastest at the wheel of the Renault R30 with 55 laps to his credit. With almost double the amount of laps (109) was Rubens Barrichello, 11th fastest, in the Williams FW32 who caused two red flag stoppages during the course of his session.

Notably on its first ever test day of their new era, Lotus had impressed the F1 world with their return debut.

While fellow new team and arch rival Virgin Racing struggled to get up and running at the same Spanish venue last week, Fairuz Fauzy driving the spanking new Lotus’ T127 completed 76 laps despite no power steering. The team were pleased that they were not at the foot of the timing sheets on their debut, albeit nearly ten seconds shy of Vettel’s fastest lap.

Slowest of all were fellow “newbies” Virgin Racing struggled again. The VR-01 only managing 10 laps in the hands of Timo Glock.

Fastest times on day one at Jerez: