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

Barcelona Test: rain spoils the day

As winter testing ends

By

12 March 2011 - 17:10

The final day of preseason testing was largely spoiled by the heavy rain.

As forecasted, the heavens opened in Catalunya. The conditions were so bad that the four teams due to test today couldn’t even do some meaningful work with Pirelli wet tyres. They hardly took to the track and Ferrari started to pack up in the course of the afternoon.

This was not very good news for McLaren who dearly needed to put more mileage on his MP4-26 after a difficult preseason. Mercedes, in the meantime, lost the opportunity to complete a race simulation with its fully updated W02.

HRT was due to run today but had to change its plans as some parts were still held up in customs. It means the team will head to Melbourne for the first race of the season with an untested car.

The twelve F1 teams will be back on track in just two weeks time for the opening round of the season.

Fastest lap times of the day :

Pos.	Driver	Team	Times	Gap	Laps
01	N. Rosberg	Mercedes GP W02	1.43.814		35
02	P. Maldonado	Williams FW33	1.44.333	+0.519	23
03	L. Hamilton	McLaren MP4-26	1.44.560	+0.746	33
04	F. Alonso	Ferrari 150° Italia	-.—.---	+-.---	5
05	M. Schumacher	Mercedes GP W02	-.—.---	+-.---	5