25/06/2008
NEWS STORY
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Heikki Kovalainen topped the timesheets on the second day of testing at Silverstone, on a day that witnessed typical British Spring weather, a combination of sunshine, strong winds, heavy cloud and even a rain shower. In addition, the afternoon was affected by several red flags - one of which was for a heavy accident involving Giancarlo Fisichella - which prevented the teams' work from running continuously.
The Finn worked on set-up and the evaluation of new-spec front wing, which will continue when Lewis Hamilton takes over tomorrow. The Woking team also put more mileage put on development mechanical parts.
Second quickest, clearly still buoyed by his Magny-Cours result, was Jarno Trulli, who took over from Kamui Kobayashi. The Italian enjoyed a trouble-free day's work on set-up for next week's Grand Prix along with aerodynamic development. Timo Glock will take over tomorrow for the last day of the test.
"Today's main focus was preparation for the British Grand Prix and it was a good day," said Trulli. "We managed to do a lot of laps and we learned several useful things. It all went smoothly and we ran without any real issues. There was a lot of gusting wind out there today, which can make direct comparisons difficult. Still, we made some progress with our set-up and aerodynamics programme. We are obviously looking to build on our result at last Sunday's French Grand Prix. Now I hope we will be in good shape for another strong race here next week."
"The weather was kind to us today, despite looking ominous early on," added Gerd Pfeiffer. "We had a brief shower halfway through the morning but apart from that we had a dry track to work on. That gave us plenty of time to make it through our programme of aerodynamics and set-up work for next week's British Grand Prix. There were a few interruptions for red flags but Jarno had a solid day's work and we made some good progress. Now we will look to continue the momentum with Timo as we wrap up the test tomorrow."
Amidst media speculation that there are problems at Williams, Nico Rosberg finished the day third quickest. "Nico completed his scheduled programme prior to the Grand Prix here next weekend," said Dickie Stanford. "During the course of the day, he covered general set-up work and experienced no problems with either the car or any of the systems." Kazuki Nakajima joins the team for the final day of the test tomorrow.
For Renault, Nelson Piquet spent the day continuing the work he began yesterday. This involved race set-up work and further tyre evaluation. The wind was also a constant concern for the team with gusty conditions disturbing the aerodynamic balance of the car and making the track even more of a challenge. Having spent two days in the car, Piquet will hand the R28 over to Fernando Alonso for the final day.
"The track conditions were better than yesterday," said the Brazilian, "although it was quite windy and that made it difficult to be consistent. But this is not unusual for Silverstone and it was good experience to run in these conditions as we can expect similar weather for the race. Our programme was based around improving the set-up of the car and general race preparation, which went well. I'm now looking forward to the race here next week."
"We ran to programme pretty well today," added Christian Silk, "and like yesterday continued working on the set-up of the car in preparation for next week. We also had the opportunity to do some more tyre evaluation work in the afternoon, which all went to plan. So two solid days work of work for Nelson, and Fernando will be in the car tomorrow when we will complete the programme."
After yesterday's 'difficulties Toro Rosso was back on track today, allowing Sebastian Vettel to get to know the Silverstone circuit for the first time. Most of the workload was on development of STR3, rather than race preparation, so all the runs were completed with a normal fuel load and just one type of tyre. Items on the agenda included front and rear suspension work, brake evaluation and steering.
The only problem on the car involved replacing a damaged floor, while half an hour of rain and several red flags in the afternoon, also interrupted proceedings. Sebastien Bourdais takes over behind the wheel tomorrow.
Two factors meant an early end to testing for BMW and Robert Kubica, but problems with the car was not one of them. The strong winds and drizzle curtailed the team's plans for aero testing. Meanwhile the testing restrictions, which limit each team to 30,000 kilometres and 300 sets of tyres a year, meant that over an hour before the session was due to finish at 17.00 the team was debriefing.
However, the scheduled programme had been completed and the engineers were making preparations for day three. Part of this test was also with the Bridgestone tyres for the British Grand Prix, and according to the team this was completed successfully.
The team is now hoping the weather will be kinder to Nick Heidfeld, who takes over tomorrow, as the plans are for mechanical and aero testing as well as work on the tyres for next week.
Felipe Massa continued with the work he begun yesterday, the development of new aerodynamic solutions and on finding the best set-up for the F2008 for this track. The Brazilian completed 69 laps on his way to posting a best time of 1.21.069.
"The last two days have been quite positive," said Massa. "We pretty much did all of what we had set out to do and the first signs are encouraging. We are working in the right direction and I think we will also be competitive at this track, even if it is much too early to say where we are compared to the others. There are too many unknowns to take into consideration when it comes to testing times."
The British weather was not the worst of Red Bull's problems, as a hard-to-identify electrical problem cost Mark Webber valuable track time. After an installation lap, the RB4 developed a misfire which was diagnosed and fixed but it later returned, eventually requiring an engine change, even though the cause of the problem was not the engine itself.
This meant Webber only managed four laps in the morning. In the afternoon, the programme centred on race preparation for the Grand Prix, but, unfortunately, it was interrupted by red flags. Despite only completing limited mileage the Australian was happy with the set-up work which he completed before handing over to David Coulthard for tomorrow's session.
For Honda, Jenson Button spent the morning developing the set-up of the RA108 in advance of next week's race, in addition to continuing the evaluation of the team's new aerodynamic package. The afternoon saw a comprehensive tyre programme with the prime and option tyres which will be used at the British Grand Prix. Rubens Barrichello will join the team tomorrow.
At Force India, a productive morning testing new aerodynamic upgrades was cut short following a heavy crash for Giancarlo Fisichella just before the lunchtime break. With high, gusty winds producing inconsistent car handling, the Italian was caught out at Becketts, one of the fastest corners of the circuit, and went into the barriers. His VJM01 suffered extensive damage and could not be repaired in time to run again. Fisichella was uninjured in the accident, however was taken to hospital for precautionary checks. Adrian Sutil will continue the programme tomorrow.
"It's a real shame we couldn't do more running in the afternoon," said the Italian, "as this morning it was all looking quite good. The car felt quicker even though the balance was not so good because of the high winds. Unfortunately I just got caught out by a change in grip and balance going through Becketts and went off the track and hit the barriers. I wasn't hurt at all, but I did not take my hands off the wheel and they had to do some checks to make sure my wrist was OK."
'We had a very productive morning," added Mike Gascoyne, "but unfortunately with the very gusty conditions Giancarlo ran wide at Becketts just before the end of the morning. Unfortunately, some of the new components were damaged and we weren't able to go out again. It was a shame as we had actually had a very useful morning with the new parts and certainly made some progress. We'll continue with Adrian tomorrow where we will also be testing some suspension modifications that hopefully will be another step forward."