Testing: Kimi Back at Jerez, Alonso Fastest

Fernando Alonso moved to the head of the times for Renault on day four of this week’s Jerez test.

After a low-key start, the Renault R29 has shown increasing pace in
recent tests, and Alonso underlined that improvement today by lapping
in 1:19.945, 0.3 seconds quicker than his nearest rival, Ferrari’s Kimi
Raikkonen.

"I’m very happy with the result from this test as we had two
trouble-free days, a very consistent car and the work we have done has
been very useful," said Alonso.

The weather again interrupted the test, with strong winds hampering teams’ efforts to put mileage on their 2009 cars.

World champion Lewis Hamilton took over the McLaren from teammate
Heikki Kovalainen but was only seventh quickest, between Kazuki
Nakajima (Williams) and Adrian Sutil (Force India). Hamilton also lost
time with a technical problem during the morning.

Force India and Renault are now heading back to their factories
prior to next week’s Barcelona test, but the other six teams are
staying on at Jerez for a final day of running tomorrow.

Today’s times:

Pos  Driver        Team                       Time      Laps
 1.  Alonso        Renault               (B)  1:19.945  129
 2.  Raikkonen     Ferrari               (B)  1:20.250  104
 3.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber            (B)  1:20.520  98
 4.  Trulli        Toyota                (B)  1:20.540  131
 5.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:20.894  107
 6.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:20.948  83
 7.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:21.302  70
 8.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:21.411  79

After the lunchbreak (previous times below),
there was a problem with Kimi’s hydraulic system that took the mechanics
quite a while to fix. Once it was sorted, Kimi went back on track,
doing four runs and a pit stop practice.  Michael Schumacher arrived in
Jerez yesterday and again today, he watched the session from the garage.

http://www.viddler.com/simple/365fe0d3/

From FerrariWorld.com

Kimi Raikkonen is back behind the wheel of the Ferrari F60 since this morning, on the fourth and penultimate day of testing for the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro and seven other teams at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit in Southern Spain.

In the morning the sky was grey, but the track still dry. As foreseen, the rain started falling just before 1pm. Fortunately, Kimi could drive several kilometres with the tyres on a dry track; 71 laps before the lunch break, while he drove his fastest lap in a time of 1.20.250. Later on, Kimi worked on endurance with several long stints; his first impressions of the car’s behaviour were positive indeed, although there’s still a lot of work to do.

Laptimes today at 1pm:
1. Alonso (Renault) – 1.19.945 (48)
2. Raikkonen (Ferrari) – 1.20.250 (71)
3. Heidfeld (BMW) – 1.20.520 (41)
4. Trulli (Toyota) – 1.20.861 (52)
5. Webber (Red Bull) – 1.20.894 (59)
6. Nakajima (Williams) – 1.20.948 (46)
7. Sutil (Force India) – 1.21.476 (55)
8. Hamilton (McLaren) – 1.21.753 (8)

Michael Schumacher makes surprise visit to Jerez Formula 1 test

From F1SA.com

Michael Schumacher made a surprise appearance at the Jerez Formula
One test on Wednesday, his first public outing since a sizeable
motorcycle testing crash and visit to hospital last month.

"Michael is here advising Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen for two days," Luca Colajanni is quoted as saying by Bild newspaper.