Mugello, Day 2: Two on top!

The Lotus of Romain Grosjean and the Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi have ended day two sharing the top place on the timesheets after a late run from Kobayashi set an identical lap time to that set earlier by Romain Grosjean in the Lotus E20, on a day which saw contrasting weather in comparison to day one when heavy rain struck the track. Luckily for the drivers’ and teams’, sunny conditions and positively balmy temperatures were the conditions on day two.

The Red Bull duo of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber would finish third and fourth for the day, with Felipe Massa’s Ferrari taking fifth.

After a relatively incident-free and quiet morning period, which saw Romain Grosjean fastest before the lunch interval, the afternoon session began in similar circumstances. Three teams’ had driver changes over the lunch hour, as Timo Glock and Sebastian Vettel replaced their respective team-mates.

Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo was scheduled to replace team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne after lunch in the Toro Rosso, but the Frenchman was seen back in the car as the afternoon period got underway. However, Ricciardo would take to the track late in the afternoon, with just 47 minutes left in the session. A quick lap of 1:23.411 would put the Australian into eighth place on the time sheets.

The Mercedes of Michael Schumacher was the first driver to venture out as the afternoon session got underway, the German clocking 144 laps over the course of the day.

It was nearly one hour into the afternoon period before the reigning World Champion of Sebastian Vettel made his first track appearance of the week, setting an initial 01:27.194 on his first timed lap, finishing the day with a quickest lap of 01:21.825 good enough for third.

Ferrari, who yesterday topped the days timing sheets, sent Felipe Massa out for some aerodynamic work as the session wore on. The Brazilian ended the morning session 3rd behind Grosjean and Webber. Massa would also join the track with 15 minutes left in the session to end the day on a long stint for the Ferrari team. With 106 laps in total completed, Massa was able to place fifth.

After setting no timed lap in the morning session, Force India’s Paul di Resta remained in the pits as the track action resumed after lunch. Force India’s lack of track time was due to a hydraulics issue, which the mechanics were quickly trying to conquer. Marussia also discovered a fault on their car, as they confirmed that a power steering issue had struck Timo Glock’s car. This issue forced the mechanics to change the steering rack, resulting in Glock unable to take the track for a while.

The first red flag of the day was caused by Kamui Kobayashi, whose Sauber had ground to halt at turn 12. However, the red flag was short-lived as the marshals quickly cleared the track. Kobayashi would then show there was no damage to his car by clocking the late run which would put him on par with Romain Grosjean.

In the time after the test has officially finished, team Lotus F1 reported that their driver, Romain Grosjean, has taken first place by less than a thousandth of a second.

The Mugello test concludes tomorrow on the third and final day before the teams head off for the Spanish Grand Prix.

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