F1-Blog

Or day three of the Barcelona testing, as it should be titled.

Toyota - The surprise of the third day of testing at Barcelona was without a doubt the TF-108 with Jarno at the wheel.

Jarno set the fastest time of the day in the car saying , “That was another positive day. We made some progress in understanding the car and the set-up. Even though this is only a test, it’s nice to see the mechanics and the guys smiling because today’s times are good motivation. There is still room for improvement but this shows the team has done a good job over the winter tests. Of course we won’t know the real running order until Melbourne but I’m quite confident for the season. It’s definitely looking much better than last year so I’m happy for the team.”. Way to understate the fact Jarno, setting a time of 1:20.801s is an impressive feat, even if the car was running with low fuel, as last years Pole time set by Felipe Massa was only a 1:21.421s. Jarno did 83 laps in the 08 car, so he was not running on fumes for most of the day at least.

Timo Glock showed that he has found improvement in the car as well setting the eleventh fastest time with a 1:22.155s. Timo - “Today was a frustrating day for me. I didn’t find a way to set up the car to my driving style and the pace suffered as a result. It’s strange that on the first morning we had okay pace then it’s been dropping off during the week. Perhaps the problem is the hard tyre but we will have to analyse all the data. At the moment it doesn’t bode well for Australia but we have a couple of weeks to turn things around.” so it seems that Timo is finding F1 a little harder to acclimatise to that GP2, but hey is quick, so expect him to work out the setup and get back on the pace.

Red Bull Racing - David Coulthard was back on the track, and set a corker of a time as well. DC obviously recovered well after his neck issues, and popped in a 1:21.258 to take second behind Jarno on the time sheets.

Mark Webber in the second car also had a decent day setting the fifth fastest time. The RBR car’s are obviously starting to become less of the mystery they were last year in setup. I expect a decent season from the team this year.

Williams - The team and driver to watch out for I think this year is the Williams with Nico Rosberg behind the wheel. Nico has obviously grown up a little and taken on the team leader role well, or at least he has if testing times are anything to go by.

The car is obviously less of a handful this year, and the testing done by Nico and the other Williams drivers has paid off, as the car is certainly quicker in test.

Nico set a 1:21.293 giving him the third spot on the day 3 timesheats.

Kazuki Nakajima is still getting to know the car, as well as F1 in general, and managed a decent eight place on the timesheats.

McLaren - Day three was not the best day for McLaren, at least on the timesheats.

Heikki came out on top in the times with a 1:21.309 giving him fourth spot.

Lewis seemed less pacey though, with only a 1:22.011 and tenth spot for his efforts. However the Mclaren cars have run fast in the previous two days, so perhaps they were concentrating on long runs, or other systems changes.

Renault - The day was another disapointing one for Renault and more importantly Fernando.

Both cars set mediocre times, landing them sixth (Nelson) and seventh (Fernando) on the timesheet.

The 08 challenger from Renault clearly has a way to go before it will be challenging for race wins. Let’s hope that Fernando sticks around at the team though, and perhaps they can get the 09 car in a more competitive form.

Ferrari - Like McLaren, Ferrari had a slow day on the timesheets at least.

The team was doing some pitwork, as well as testing long distance setup, so that could account for it.

Kimi set a time putting him just ahead of Lewis Hamilton in ninth, whilst Filipe set the thirteenth fastest time.

Force India - Giancarlo Fisichella again set a decent time in the Force India car getting twelth spot ahead of Massa on the timesheet.

the new car is certainly a step up from last years car, and with some tweaking and prodding could probably end up in the top eight of races on merit this year.

Adrian Sutil was in the second car today, and managed a sixteenth place time. It looks like Fisi definitely still has a little left to give F1.

BMW Sauber - Again not a great day for the team.

The new car seems to just not have the pace of the 07 one. However what testing program they have, and are running is anyone’s guess.

Robert Kubicca set a time that landed him in fourteenth, and Nick Heidfeld managed to get ahead of the Honda’s for the seventeenth spot.

Toro Rosso - STR only had Sebastien Bourdais out in a car today. Let’s hope that the team can use pretty much everything that the Red Bull team are learning on their version of the car.

Sebastien Bourdais set the fifteenth place time, the team had been working on the gearbox, and obviously trying to get Sebastien acclimatised to the car before the first race.

Honda - A slow day for the Honda team, with the two cars holding the final spots on the grid.

The team were doing race start, and long run programes, and the times obviously suffered.

Jenson managed to get the eighteenth spot, with test driver Alex Wurz lining up in nineteenth.

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