Miami GP || May 5 || 16h00 (Local time)

Valencia test: Alonso fastest at midday

As testing for 2011 begins

By

1 February 2011 - 13:41

Formula One’s first official test session of the year got underway this morning at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit, in the outskirts of Valencia.

It kicked off at 10am – an hour later than usual – thus accommodating for the public unveilings of the new cars of the Mercedes, Red Bull, Toro Rosso and Williams teams.

All twelve teams are present but Virgin, HRT, Force India and McLaren are still testing with their 2010 cars. Meanwhile, Team Lotus will only join the track tomorrow and will be testing behind closed doors on Friday.

This morning’s running was dedicated to the familiarization with the new cars and the latest Pirelli tyres. Lap times are expected to improve this afternoon, when the teams will have completed their usual checks and found basic settings.

There was only one incident reported: Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes GP W02 stopped on track with a technical problem.

After two and a half hours of running, Fernando Alonso was leading the way. World Champion Sebastian Vettel was second fastest with Force India’s reserve driver Nico Hulkenberg in third place.

Testing will continue until 5pm.

Laptimes at 12h30 :

Pos.	Driver	Team	Laptime	Gap	Laps
01	F. Alonso	Ferrari F150	1.15.371		36
02	S. Vettel	Red Bull RB7	1.15.559	+0.188	13
03	N. Hulkenberg	Force India VJM03	1.15.615	+0.244	29
04	K. Kobayashi	Sauber C30	1.15.831	+0.460	31
05	G. Paffett	McLaren MP4-25	1.16.256	+0.885	38
06	J. D’Ambrosio	Virgin VR-01	1.16.398	+1.027	32
07	J. Alguersuari	Toro Rosso STR6	1.18.260	+2.889	8
08	R. Barrichello	Williams FW33	1.18.714	+3.343	11
09	N. Karthikeyan	HRT F110	1.19.189	+3.818	17
10	N. Rosberg	Mercedes GP W02	1.19.330	+4.559	9
11	V. Petrov	Lotus Renault R31	1.20.633	+5.262	6