Spanish GP || June 23 || 15h00 (Local time)

Barcelona Test: McLaren debut nose bump; Heidfeld has a cold

Webber the quickest in first morning

By GMM

8 March 2011 - 13:07

McLaren debuted a radical front nose as the final week of pre-season testing kicked off at Barcelona on Tuesday.

Jenson Button took to the Circuit de Catalunya with a bulbous lump on the nose of his MP4-26, connecting rods to the extremities of the front wing.

It is believed the setup is a tool to accurately measure front wing ’flex’, after McLaren was out-foxed in this area by - notably - Red Bull and Ferrari last year.

Meanwhile, a McLaren spokesman confirmed reports the British team will not be running in Spain on Thursday.

McLaren’s schedule will therefore effectively be two back-to-back tests on Tuesday-Wednesday and Friday-Saturday.

It also emerged in Barcelona on Tuesday that Nick Heidfeld, replaced by his Renault teammate Vitaly Petrov, will sit out the afternoon session on the opening day with a cold.

Albeit two seconds slower than Mark Webber, the German finished the morning session with the second best time.

Times at 1 pm CET:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
01	M. Webber	Red Bull RB7	1.22.544		37
02	N. Heidfeld	Lotus Renault R31	1.24.735	+2.191	20
03	D. Valsecchi	Team Lotus T128	1.25.406	+2.862	49
04	S. Perez	Sauber C30	1.25.443	+2.899	53
05	N. Hulkenberg	Force India VJM04	1.26.030	+3.486	31
06	J. Button	McLaren MP4-26	1.28.971	+6.427	43
07	J. d’Ambrosio	Virgin MVR-02	1.33.502	+10.958	20
08	S. Buemi	Toro Rosso STR6	-.—.---	+-.---	3