Valencia Testing

Day 3 – From Autosport.com

Heikki Kovalainen put his McLaren on top of the timesheets on the second full day of testing at Valencia in Spain on Wednesday.

The Finn set a best time that was just more than six tenths of a
second faster than Felipe Massa’s Ferrari, with world champion Kimi
Raikkonen a further two tenths of a second adrift.

Massa caused one red flag when he stopped on track at 10.16am when a temperature sensor warning light came on.

Behind fourth fastest Lewis Hamilton, Kazuki Nakajima continued to
show the strong form from the Williams team in the hybrid car while
Nico Rosberg made more progress witht the new FW30.

Nakajima ended the day one tenth faster than former world champion Fernando Alonso in the new Renault R28.

Eighth fastest Mark Webber showed some improved speed from the new
Red Bull Racing RB4, but the Australian suffered reliability issues. He
caused two red flags during the day, stopping on track at 10.49am and
2.35pm.

BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubia continued work on trying to overcome the
balance issues that have hindered the speed of the new F1.08 to set the
12th fastest time, with Toyota’s Timo Glock 11th quickest as he worked
on improving the TF108.

Rubens Barrichello completed 31 laps in the new Honda RA108 but was
unable to challenge the new cars ahead of him, setting the 16th fastest
time of the day.

Today’s times:

Pos  Driver        Team                       Time     Laps
 1.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)   1:11.000   92  *
 2.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)   1:11.662   81  *
 3.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)   1:11.850  108  *
 4.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)   1:12.076  115  *
 5.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota      (B)   1:12.255   93  
 6.  Alonso        Renault              (B)   1:12.360  111  *
 7.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      (B)   1:12.493  117  *
 8.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)   1:12.594   87  *
 9.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber           (B)   1:12.976   51  *
10.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)   1:13.015   63
11.  Glock         Toyota               (B)   1:13.129   95  *
12.  Kubica        BMW-Sauber           (B)   1:13.230  121 
13.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)   1:13.307  118
14.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari  (B)   1:13.409   98
15.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)   1:13.547   96  *
16.  Barrichello   Honda                (B)   1:14.588   36  *
17.  Kogure        Honda                (B)   1:16.954   40

* 2008 car

Valencia Day 2 – From Autosport.com

Ferrari duo Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen led the way on the first major head-to-head test with new cars on Tuesday, although it was it the pace of the Williams that caused a few surprises.

Massa and Raikkonen continued development work of their F2008 at Valencia in Spain, and Massa’s best effort put him more than half a second clear at the end of the day.

But it was the early pace of the new Williams FW30, which only ran for the first time yesterday, that impressed onlookers – as Nico Rosberg set the third quickest time during a long run.

That effort put him almost two tenths ahead of McLaren duo Heikki Kovalainen and Pedro de la Rosa.

Fernando Alonso continued to put mileage on the new Renault R28, although his sixth fastest time was done on a short run.

There were a total of four red flags during the day, two caused by Heidfeld, who stopped on track once and went off the other time. The other two red flags where caused by Massa running out of fuel and Alonso breaking down at the end of the day.

Tuesday’s times:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time      Laps
 1.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  1:12.182   97 *
 2.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1:12.721  100 *
 3.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:12.838   80 *
 4.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:13.026  100 *
 5.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:13.163  107 *
 6.  Alonso        Renault              (B)  1:13.316  133 *
 7.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:13.473   89 
 8.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:13.627   86 
 9.  Asmer         BMW-Sauber           (B)  1:13.669   44
10.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:13.675   73
11.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber           (B)  1:13.779   80 *
12.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1:13.820   69 *
13.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:13.944   70 *
14.  Glock         Toyota               (B)  1:14.095   76 *
15.  Liuzzi        Force India-Ferrari  (B)  1:15.095   64
16.  Wurz          Honda                (B)  1:15.440   49