Button Smashes Barcelona record in major team test
Discussion
Go Jenson!
Autosport said:
BAR's Jenson Button set a sensational lap record in testing at Barcelona today (Thursday). Driving the interim Honda-powered car, he became the first man to lap the altered circuit in under 75 seconds. The Briton went a second quicker than anybody has done this week.
Button's time came after a day of tyre testing in the hybrid car, and was nearly a second ahead of Michael Schumacher's best. Schumacher was back in the cockpit for the first day since the Japanese Grand Prix last year, immediately going quicker than the hitherto all-conquering Williams duo. Michael was driving last year's car, of course.
His brother, who hadn't even seen Michael since that Suzuka race, was still positive about the new FW26: “This is the best Williams I have ever driven. I've never had such a good start to a season.”
Most runners had trouble-free days, with Montoya completing a race simulation and delighted with the lack of red flags. A great deal of tyre testing was completed by most of the drivers, which included Nick Heidfeld, who did an afternoon's work for Jordan. Timo Glock was in the car this morning, and also had an uneventful time of it.
Fernando Alonso was third quickest in the new Renault, clocking 102 laps. Franck Montagny helped him out, driving the older car.
Olivier Panis was none too pleased with the new Toyota today: “It doesn't have enough grip or downforce. I think the aerodynamics need work. But the base of the car is good and I think [technical director] Mike Gascoyne being here gives us plenty of reason for optimism. We should have some new aero parts for the next Barcelona test in February.”
Barcelona testing day 4:
Pos Driver Car Time Laps
1 Jenson Button (BAR-Honda) 1m14.607s 85
2 Michael Schumacher (Ferrari) 1m15.410s 95
3 Fernando Alonso (Renault) 1m15.505s 102*
4 Ralf Schumacher (Williams-BMW) 1m15.736s 63*
5 Luca Badoer (Ferrari) 1m15.767s 86
6 Marc Gene (Williams-BMW) 1m15.820s 46
7 Juan Pablo Montoya (Williams-BMW) 1m16.251s 97*
8 Olivier Panis (Toyota) 1m16.507s 98*
9 Giancarlo Fisichella (Sauber-Petronas) 1m16.529s 66*
10 Takuma Sato (BAR-Honda) 1m16.560s 90
11 Mark Webber (Jaguar) 1m17.173s 144
12 Franck Montagny (Renault) 1m17.447s 130
13 Nick Heidfeld (Jordan-Ford) 1m17.530s 49
14 Christian Klien (Jaguar) 1m18.029s 46*
15 Ryan Briscoe (Toyota) 1m18.106s 62
16 Timo Glock (Jordan-Ford) 1m18.236s 36
condor said:
He has 3 fast laps out of 85: 1:14.607 directly followed by 1:15.810 directly followed by 1:16.775. All his other laptimes are in the 1:19s approximately. He showed no consistent speed and nothing that even comes close to that amazing 1:14 lap.
Fuel fumes anyone?
That's because he was tyre testing, you see they tend to do a benchmark lap and try to keep consistency over each lap so that they can get accurate feedback, they probably gave him his head to try a few fliers and that was the result, so it's not fuel fumes as he did laps after it too. He actually did that time, in that car. Considering the others would have been doing the same it's a very good lap.
>> Edited by FourWheelDrift on Friday 23 January 16:00
Gassing Station | General Motorsport | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff