Jerez, Day 4: Alonso Alonso quickest despite more problems

On the final day of the first winter test of 2012 in Jerez, it was Fernando Alonso who surprised everyone by clocking and maintaining the best lap time of the day in his Ferrari F2012. Ferrari, who struggled in the first 3 days of testing, found grip and pace early on in the session to claim the top spot of the time sheet and end the Jerez Winter Test on a high note after a disappointing start to the pre-season.

Alonso set the pace leading time of 1:18.877 early in the morning session after a six lap stint on track. The closest anyone would get this afternoon to that time was rookie driver Jean-Eric Vergne in the Scuderia Toro Rosso STR7, who managed to get within 0.720 seconds of Alonso. The Ferrari F2012’s top setting time was also the second fastest time set by a 2012 car over the 4 day test period, with only the Lotus E20 of Romain Grosjean going faster in yesterday’s session (Thursday).

Ferrari did however encounter the hydraulic problem again which plagued the car yesterday, which meant Alonso would not get as much track time in the afternoon that the team may have initially hoped he would. Alonso finished the day having only completing 39 laps in total, the fewest of the runners of the day.

Impressively, Jean-Eric Vergne in the STR7 managed to hold of the pressure of Sebastian Vettel and his RB8 in a late surge by the Double World Champion. Also plagued with problems, Vettel’s car spent the morning session in the garage as mechanics raced to fix what they would only tell us to be an ‘electrical’ problem. The afternoon session would be a lot more successful for Vettel though, ending the day in P3 with 50 laps completed (all of which were achieved from the afternoon run).

Lewis Hamilton finished fourth overall for the day, having a very low key and un-exciting test as McLaren’s plans were simply to collect general data from the car to take back to the factory with them.

Romain Grosjean registered another 95 laps on the Lotus E20 today, completing a successful test week for the Enstone based team and demonstrating the new capability, and reliability of the car. However, he was unable to match the pace he set yesterday, finishing the day in fifth position.

Kamui Kobayashi, once again at the reigns of the Sauber C31, brought one of a few red flag periods to the track today with a hydraulics leak this afternoon. The leak was not serious enough to stop the team however, as they fixed the problem and ensured Kobayashi could finish the days’ work on track. A solid 1:19.834 saw Kobayashi put the Sauber firmly in sixth on the time sheets.

Nico Hulkenberg, making the most of the time he had left in the Sahara Force India VJM05 after missing yesterday’s afternoon session (due to Bianchi’s crash), clocked an impressive 90 laps on the car, and finished seventh on the end of day timings. He was also the last driver to break the 1:20 barrier.

Williams F1 driver Bruno Senna and Caterham F1 driver Jarno Trulli brought up the rear of the pack, having chosen to focus on lengthy runs at higher fuel loads instead of flying laps.
Bruno Senna had another long day in the car, completing the most laps of any other team today – a total of 125. Senna’s day comprised of two long runs; managing a 25 lap stint, and later in the day, a 37 lap stint. Bar a minor stop on track, for what is believed to be a lack of fuel in the tank, the Williams F1 team had a successful and reliable test session today.

Jarno Trulli completed the field in the Caterham CT01, and like Bruno Senna, completed an impressive 117 laps in his first day in the car. Once more, the focus of the Caterham F1 team was to put miles on the car, and test the new KERS system which they did not have in 2011. The team seem to be making good progress for the upcoming season, with Jarno saying after the days test that the car was “a definite progression from 2011” and praising the work of the team on the car, commenting that the CT01’s “reliability has been demonstrated all week here in Jerez”. Trulli finished with a best lap time 1:22.198, good enough for ninth position, but more notably, only +3.321 seconds off the pace of the Ferrari F2012.

The teams now retreat to their respective factories for data analysis collected from the weeks work in Jerez. Winter testing returns for its second round in Barcelona, Spain, on Tuesday February 21st 2012, where Mercedes AMG F1 will launch their 2012 challenger, the W03.

Day 4 final times and lap numbers can be seen below:

Follow me on Twitter - @IrvineF1