Day 3 at Barcelona: Kimi works on steering set-up

Source: autosport.com | lotusf1team.com | live commentary

“A couple more laps for the Iceman as he assesses the steering. We’re working on getting everything just as Kimi wants it.”

“Just changing the steering column. Kimi wasn’t happy with how it felt, the team are working flat out to get him back on track”

“Kimi was much more comfortable with the steering on the last run. All sorted now, plenty of work to do this afternoon”

Lotus F1 Team had a curtailed day of testing at the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona today, with steering issues in the morning and rain in the afternoon limiting track time to 43 laps.

Kimi was at the wheel of the E20 in Barcelona for the first time today as the final week of pre-season testing nears its conclusion.

It wasn’t all plain sailing for the Finnish driver though, as investigations into a power steering issue which eventually lead to a steering rack change ruled out the majority of running time during the morning.

Coupled with a sudden outburst of rain later in the day, the team was restricted to a short window in which to rack up the laps. Nonetheless Kimi was pleased to be back at the wheel, and is looking forward to putting some distance under his wheels tomorrow:

Kimi: “It was good to get in the E20 after missing testing last week. We had an issue with the power steering in the morning then we didn’t run in the wet, so it was quite a short time for me in the car today. At least we got some runs. The car was reliable when on track meaning we gained some good data for the team. Hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow and we can complete more laps.”

Despite the stop-start nature of the day, Trackside Operations Director Alan Permane was pleased with the improvement in balance shown from the E20 over the course of the session, which will give the team valuable data heading into the final run here in Spain tomorrow:

“Aside from the time we lost early on it was clear that we were running a different programme from the other teams today. We were hampered by power steering issues in the morning, which took some time to rectify. Once on track, we steadily improved the car balance through the day. We opted not to run in the rain which meant we completed fewer laps today than would otherwise have been the case.”

Kimi will complete the final day of pre-season testing tomorrow, working on both car set-up and a race simulation. Weather permitting, the session will begin at 09:00 local time.

TODAY'S TIMES: 
Pos--Driver--------Team------------Time--------------Laps
 1.  Perez          Sauber          1m22.094s           114
 2.  Button         McLaren         1m22.103s  +0.009   44
 3.  Ricciardo      Toro Rosso      1m22.155s  +0.061   131
 4.  Massa          Ferrari         1m22.413s  +0.319   122
 5.  Di Resta       Force India     1m22.446s  +0.352   108
 6.  Senna          Williams        1m22.480s  +0.386   111
 7.  Kovalainen     Caterham        1m22.630s  +0.536   64
 8.  Webber         Red Bull        1m22.662s  +0.568   70
 9.  Rosberg        Mercedes        1m22.932s  +0.838   129
10.  Raikkonen      Lotus           1m25.379s  +3.285   43 
 
MORNING TIMES: 
Pos--Driver--------Team------------Time--------------Laps
 1.  Perez          Sauber          1m22.094s           49
 2.  Ricciardo      Toro Rosso      1m22.155s  +0.061   50
 3.  Massa          Ferrari         1m22.413s  +0.319   48
 4.  Di Resta       Force India     1m22.446s  +0.352   45
 5.  Senna          Williams        1m22.480s  +0.386   36
 6.  Kovalainen     Caterham        1m22.630s  +0.536   44
 7.  Webber         Red Bull        1m22.662s  +0.568   46
 8.  Rosberg        Mercedes        1m22.932s  +0.838   63
 9.  Button         McLaren         1m23.409s  +1.315   17
10.  Raikkonen      Lotus           1m25.620s  +3.526   17