Jerez, Day 2: Schumacher fastest in second morning

Day 2 of Winter Testing was always going to be somewhat of an anti-climax compared to the events of Day 1, mainly because now everyone has gotten over the hype of the Formula 1 season starting again, and the realisation that teams are not testing to show off, but actually to analyse their work, sets in.

The day got off to a somewhat cooler start. Although the skies were still clear, it was a brisk 5 degrees Celsius when the testing started at 09:00 CET. The focus for the majority of teams today was simple – put in the laps, get the miles on the car, and analyse important data received back from the stints on track. With Kimi Raikkonen telling the world media yesterday that the lap times meant nothing to him, even after topping the time sheets at the end of Day 1 testing, we knew the focus from the teams would be somewhat different to yesterday’s basic runs of breaking in their new cars after the long winter test.

Heikki Kovalainen in the Caterham CT01 was the first car to leave the paddock as Caterham F1 Team were keen to put their new DRS and KERS systems to the test. Quickly followed by Kimi Raikkonen in the Lotus F1 E20, and Jules Bianchi who was having his first test run in the Sahara Force India VJM05, most of the teams took to the track to complete a few installation laps for the day ahead.

With the exception of Kimi Raikkonen taking a brief trip across the gravel trap, which brought the first of two red flags to the session (for track clean-up; the second was to ensure there was no oil on track), the morning session remained reasonably uneventful, as the teams took turns ducking in and out of the pits to get test laps and flying laps completed. However, the ‘Iceman’ lost valuable time on track as due to the slip into the gravel, his E20 had to have a new plank and the steering rack replaced.

The surprise of the morning (time wise) came from Michael Schumacher in the 2011 Mercedes F1 W02, who finished the morning atop of the time sheets with a blistering 1:18.561. With some new parts being tested on the car, if this is anything to go by for their 2012 challenger, we could be in for an exciting year for Mercedes AMG F1.

Mark Webber and the RB8 made the second place on the timesheets, putting in some impressive laps on track. The Red Bull Racing RB8 looked very comfortable on track this morning and Mark Webber said he was a lot more comfortable with the car today after yesterday session. Daniel Ricciardo in the Toro Rosso STR7 had an impressive morning too, slotting into P3 for the morning, and just 0.5 seconds off the pace of the RB8. There were also no signs of the oil pressure or disintegration problems that Toro Rosso encountered yesterday, which was reassuring.

Jules Bianchi had an impressive start to his debut of Formula 1 winter testing, managing 46 laps over the course of the morning and getting the car to fourth place on the timesheets. He was followed by yesterday’s pacesetter Kimi Raikkonen, who, after car repairs, only managed fifth position and 26 laps.

Jenson Button and Felipe Massa had another mediocre morning, managing to get sixth and seventh place respectively. The Ferrari F2012 looked very uncomfortable on track, raising questions as to the stability of the car going forward. Ferrari were also very active on Twitter, reassuring their followers constantly that testing did not reflect true pace, and that the team were simply collecting important data.

Williams F1 Team will be pleased with their morning; Pastor Maldonado made up for yesterdays lack of running time by posting a 61 laps over the course of the morning, putting the car in eighth position, but over 2 and a half seconds down on the pace set by Michale Schumacher.

Sergio Perez, having his first day in the Sauber C31, could only muster up 35 laps and ninth position throughout the morning, and will be looking to improve on his times this afternoon.
Heikki Kovalainen, completing the highest number of laps for the morning (78 in total) was only able to put the Caterham on P10, with Pedro De La Rosa in the 2011 HRT finishing up for the morning runners.

All times and lap numbers can be seen below.

Follow me on Twitter - @IrvineF1