F1: World Champion Sebastian Vettel is fastest in first test in ValenciaReigning Formula 1 World Champion Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time of the first day of pre-season testing in the new Renault-powered Red Bull RB7, completing 93 laps today.
Vettel’s best time was 1:13.769, 1.195 second slower than the best lap time set on the first day of testing last year (Felipe Massa, Ferrari, 1:12.274). The Red Bull team used the opportunity to gain a greater understanding of the car and it was the first chance the team had had to use the Pirelli tires since the Abu Dhabi test at the end of last season. Nico Hulkenberg set the second time of the day behind the wheel of last year’s Force India.The team used the VJM03 to gather further tire data while valuable development work is continued on the VJM04 in the wind tunnel back at Silverstone. Gary Paffett was third in the McLaren. The team of Woking, UK has chosen to wait until next week before hitting the track with its 2011 car, and is instead using this week's Valencia test to set benchmarks on Pirellis with the 2010 MP4-25 machine. Paul di Resta was fourth in the Force India ahead of Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard gave the F150 its official track debut, after it had been launched last Friday in Maranello. Alonso worked mainly on general car development and on gaining further understanding of the Pirelli tires. Kamui Kobayashi drove the new Sauber C30-Ferrari to 6th place.
“We used the morning for several system checks and some initial set up work. We only used the KERS and the rear wing activation in the afternoon. Tire degradation was quite high and we will have to keep an eye on that for the remainder of the test.” Renault made a slow start to 2011 with Vitaly Petrov doing just six laps before a long break for the R31 - featuring a radical design with the exhausts exiting the car at the front of the side pods. He too was back out later for another 22 laps and was 8th fastest. The adjustable rear wing of the R31 was monitored with a camera and pressure logging sensors, and it worked as expected said the team.
German Nico Rosberg put the first miles on the Mercedes GP W02 but were not close to the top of the times. Rosberg completed nine laps before coming to a stop on track with a hydraulics problem. The team worked hard to fix the issue, enabling Michael Schumacher to go out at the end of the day to complete his first exploratory laps with the car and was 9th quickest Day 1 of pre-season testing*, Valencia, Spain: 1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m13.769s 93 laps 2. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 2010 1m13.938s + 0.169s 71 3. Gary Paffett McLaren-Mercedes 2010 1m14.292s + 0.523s 91 4. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 2010 1m14.461s + 0.692s 28 5. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m14.553s + 0.784s 97 6. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m15.621s + 1.852s 68 7. Jerome D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 2010 1m16.003s + 2.234s 71 8. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1m16.351s + 2.582s 28 9. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m16.450s + 2.681s 15 10. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m17.214s + 3.445s 19 11. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1m17.335s + 3.566s 77 12. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 2010 1m18.020s + 4.251s 45 13. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m19.930s + 6.161s 9 *Unofficial timing
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