Final Tests: BMW Fastest, Kimi in Second

Nick Heidfeld led the way for BMW Sauber on the first day of the
final pre-season group test at the Circuit de Catalunya on Monday.

Although the F1.09 has had a fairly low-key testing programme
so far, Heidfeld’s best lap of 1:20.339 saw him end the day more than
half a second clear of Kimi Raikkonen.

Jarno Trulli was third quickest for Toyota, just ahead of
Jenson Button, who was the talking point of the day after spending much
of it at the top of the timesheets.

Just four days after the former Honda Racing outfit were given
the green light to continue in F1, Button was consistently fast as he
made his return to the cockpit for the first time since the end of last
year.

The Brawn GP car caused a few raised eyebrows up and down the
pitlane too, thanks to the design of its diffuser and some aero tweaks
at the front end of the car.

Today’s times:

Pos  Driver        Team                       Time     Laps
 1.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber           (B)  1:20.339   92
 2.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1:20.908   80
 3.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1:20.937  118
 4.  Button        Brawn-Mercedes       (B)  1:21.140   82
 5.  Piquet        Renault              (B)  1:21.662  124
 6.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:22.158   96
 7.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:22.246  115
 8.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes (B)  1:22.452  127
 9.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:22.813  111
10.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:22.948   87

From FerrariWorld.com
Kimi Raikkonen was tasked with taking the controls
of the Ferrari F60, alongside nine other teams testing here – the first
time this year that all the teams have been present at the same time.


The Finnish driver worked on finding the best set-up for the car, on reliability and on a comparison between various aerodynamic solutions. Kimi covered a total of 81 laps, the quickest in a time of 1:20.908.



Testing continues at this circuit tomorrow, again with Kimi Raikkonen on track.

"It was a good day, although we couldn’t drive a lot, atleast not as much as we had planned," Kimi said.

"The car seems to react really well to our setups and to the modifications carried out. It’s comforting to know that because it means we’re heading in the right direction. I know I’m repeating myself but I have to say it again: it’s still too early to understand where we are compared to the others. We have to wait until Melbourne to have a clear idea."

Videos courtesy of yossidlr and TaniaS (second video is updated with extra footage from 10th March at the test)

From FerrariWorld.com

Barcelona – Together for the first time

The laptimes aren’t very expressive, because
the F60 was out for just one lap on the regular tyres. Kimi, with
1:22.869, was only faster than the slowest man on the track, almost two
seconds slower than Jenson Button (1:21.140) with the new car, sporting
the name of the Scuderia’s former technical director.