Rosberg tops timesheets in Catalunya
Nico Rosberg topped the timesheets on the third day of F1 testing at the Circuito de Catalunya in Montmelo, Spain.
The Mercedes GP driver produced a fastest lap of one minute 23.168 seconds on a rain-affected day of testing.
Rosberg's lap was over a tenth of a second quicker than reigning drivers' champion Sebastian Vettel had clocked in the Red Bull on Friday.
"It was interesting running with the intermediates this morning and, although the warm-up is tricky, we definitely improved our understanding of the tyres," said Rosberg.
"We made good progress in understanding the car and the tyres, and the reliability was solid once again."
Lotus-Renault's Vitaly Petrov was second fastest on Saturday, while McLaren's Lewis Hamilton was third quickest.
The biggest boost for McLaren came from the car's reliability, however, with Hamilton able to complete 93 laps at the Catalan circuit.
"We've had a few technical issues with this car, but the guys have been working incredibly to rectify them," said Hamilton.
"To get more than 90 laps under my belt today was a big positive, and I'm looking forward to a trouble-free day tomorrow.
"We've been focusing on our programme, trying to complete as many laps as possible, improve reliability and understand the Pirelli tyres. We're learning more and more about them every day."
Testing times from Catalunya
Pos --- Driver --- Constructor --- Time --- Laps completed
1 --- Nico Rosberg --- Mercedes GP --- 1m23.168 --- 92
2 --- Vitaly Petrov --- Lotus-Renault --- 1m23.463 --- 93
3 --- Lewis Hamilton --- Vodafone McLaren Mercedes --- 1m23.858 --- 93
4 --- Pastor Maldonado --- Williams --- 1m24.815 --- 60
5 --- Mark Webber --- Red Bull Racing --- 1m24.995 --- 139
6 --- Jarno Trulli --- Team Lotus --- 1m25.454 --- 48
7 --- Sergio Perez --- Sauber --- 1m25.557 --- 115
8 --- Adrian Sutil --- Force India F1 --- 1m25.720 --- 102
9 --- Sebastien Buemi --- Scuderia Toro Rosso --- 1m26.155 --- 31
10 --- Felipe Massa --- Ferrari --- 1m26.508 --- 123
11 --- Timo Glock --- Virgin Racing --- 1m26.598 --- 97
12 --- Giorgio Mondini --- HRT F1 --- 1m28.178 --- 39
13 --- Daniel Ricciardo --- Scuderia Toro Rosso --- 1m28.329 --- 42
14 --- Narain Karthikeyan --- HRT F1 --- 1m30.722 --- 32
Comment 1 - 11 of 11
I can understand that money is an issue when it comes to in-season testing... BUT, does it have to be "all or nothing"? wouldn't it make sense to have "some" testing rather than none?
I met this geougous Spanish waiter over the weekend, lovelly he is.
Hope you are all glad for me.
Those predictions were for last year from Art (aka Felice). What you got this year Art ya fu.cking idiot.
I doubt Butty will feel so motivated after Mercedes GP have won the first couple of races of the season :-)
From art_tidesco, on Fri 8 Jan 9:41AM
It is going to be an amazing season for Mercedes GP either Nico Rosberg or Michael Schumacher will win it and if Michael turns out to be this seasons Badoer he will get replaced after a couple of races by Heidfeld :-)
It's a win win situation for Mercedes GP, every one will be eating dust and marbles :-)
From art_tidesco, on Fri 8 Jan 11:43AM
Best case scenario Michael wraps up the title after the winning the Hungarian GP, worst case Michael does a Badoer and gets replaced by Heidfeld after two races, Nico Rosberg secures the WDC after winning the Hungarian GP and Heidfeld secures second spot in the WDC a couple of races later :-)
Either way it is all looking good for a period of prolonged Mercedes GP domination :-)
arttidesco
From arttidesco on Fri Jan 08 09:36AM
It will either be a cake walk for Schumacher or he will do a Badoer and get replaced after two races I am putting money on Michael wrapping up his ninth WDC by the end of the Hungarian GP :-)
From art_tidesco, on Mon 11 Jan 9:22AM
With Michael back in top form in the best team with the best car, this season will be as boring as the other seven years he won the WDC :-)
From art_tidesco, on Tue 12 Jan 1:20PM
#45 I know Schumacher will wrap up the WDC after the Hungarian GP , Rosberg will wrap up 2nd in the WDC soon after that and Mercedes GP will wrap up the WCC soon after that. Vettel will comfortably beat Webber to third in the WCC, Kubica will be the surprise of the season coming 5th in the WDC for Renault, Lewis will slaughter Jenson in Lewis Team McLaren who's drivers will come in 6th and 7th in the WDC, and Massa will claim 8th spot in the WDC ahead of Kobayashi in 9th with Tefonso, who will be sacked at the end of the season for coming in 10th. Team Proton will run out of funds before the season is ove
Petrov has found some speed, nice 1 :)))))
Apart from Hamilton aren't these the class of 2011 helmet carriers ?
McLaren will be braking out those buckets of lurid green paint again I fear.
Well, Pastor looks like he can drive.
tausif_rox: you are wrong.
Red Bull`s could be the fastest by now,but...................
neither Ferrari nor McLaren showed their real pace......
What are you looking are their fastet laps ,but in race situation i can assure you that the things are much more different than you think.
If the McLaren stop with the tecnical failures and get to work you will see the difference
@#$% i ran faster than his car
After seeing these tests, what i think is red bull are the fastest team, i think they are almost a second quicker than ferrari(second quickest car). If we see today's time both ferrari and red bull were running heavy and ferrari are almost a second down same was the case yesterday when vettel and alonso were driving,they also ran light but ferrari was still down a second. And then i think its maclaren and mercedes which are more or less on par with each other but considerably slower than ferrari and then its renault not far away from both these guys. Red Bull looks mighty Fast like last year but maclaren looks slower than last year. Its just a personal opinion,i might be wrong,Just hope that someone gets close to the redbulls. They are definately the fastest.
let the poker games begin
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