Motorsports Mondial

Photo: Lotusrenaultgp.com

Barcelona Test, Day 3: Wet and dry running for Vitaly

A damp start in Barcelona turned to sunshine in the afternoon as Vitaly got back behind the wheel of the R31. Nick will be in the car for the final day of testing tomorrow.

Driver: Vitaly

Chassis: R31-01

Fastest Lap: 1:23.463

Position: P2

Total laps: 93

What we learned today:

– We gathered some useful data on the intermediates Pirelli tyres as Vitaly and the team completed its first significant mileage on them

– The R31 was fitted with a different spec of exhaust tail pipe. Aero data was collected to assess its effect on car performance.

Vitaly: “We used the intermediates to begin with and it was one of our first opportunities to do a lot of laps with them. The only issue we had was warming them up because it was very cold early on. The plan was to do a race distance in the morning and we managed quite a lot of long runs while the track was wet. Then, we put the slicks on just before lunch and started improving the set-up. We learned a lot of new things and I’m starting to understand the tyres more and how to get the most from this car.”

Alan Permane’s technical programme notes

– It was a slow start to the day with the wet conditions, but we did some long runs on the intermediates. However we were interrupted by several red flags.

– For the afternoon, Vitaly started a set-up programme, and we made some good progress with the suspension changes at the front and rear. We also did some work with tyre pressures and found some more improvements. Overall the car has responded well to the changes today and Vitaly has been much happier.”

Did You Know?

During the average day of testing, the drivers will change gear around 2,500 times.

Pos  Driver              Team/car              Time       Gap       Laps
 1.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes              1m23.168s            92
 2.  Vitaly Petrov       Renault               1m23.463s  + 0.295s  93
 3.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      1m23.858s  + 0.690s  93
 4.  Pastor Maldonado    Williams-Cosworth     1m24.815s  + 1.647s  60
 5.  Mark Webber         Red Bull-Renault      1m24.995s  + 1.827s  139
 6.  Jarno Trulli        Lotus-Renault         1m25.454s  + 2.286s  48
 7.  Sergio Perez        Sauber-Ferrari        1m25.557s  + 2.389s  115
 8.  Adrian Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  1m25.720s  + 2.552s  102
 9.  Sebastien Buemi     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m26.155s  + 2.987s  31
10.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari               1m26.508s  + 3.340s  123
11.  Timo Glock          Virgin-Cosworth       1m26.598s  + 3.430s  97
12.  Giorgio Mondini     Hispania-Cosworth     1m28.178s  + 5.010s  39
13.  Daniel Ricciardo    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m28.329s  + 5.161s  42
14.  Narain Karthikeyan  Hispania-Cosworth     1m30.722s  + 7.554s  32