Fresh F1

Kovalainen was fastest in the last day of testing at Sepang in Malaysia. Behind him - Massa who is confindent: “We are strong and fast.”

SEPANG (Malaysia), 30th March 2007 - the Renault of Heikki Kovalainen has finished the test at the Sepang circuit on top. A rather agitated day and not due to the rain this time. Five red flags were caused due to mechanical problems for some of the protagonists. Firstly a loss of oil has forced the McLaren di Lewis Hamilton to stop. In the afternoon, however, it was Kovalainen who stopped on track twice.Following them were the Red Bull of Mark Webber and the Bmw of Nick Heidfeld. Lastly, the ubiquitous rain `dropped in` again, falling for approximately an hour.

Kovalainen reconfirmed himself after the disappointing day yesterday: 55 turns, the best one in 1′ 35″757. Behind him the Ferrari of Felipe Massa; the Brazilian was very satisfied at the end: “We are strong and very fast”. The Ferrari driver continued the preparation for the forthcoming race next week, experimenting several adjustments of the car. He also carried out some electronics and new component testing. All in all, 73 turns for Massa, his fastest in 1′ 35″808.

Behind Kovalainen and Massa, came Anthony Davidson, with 68 laps in the bag (1′ 36″787 was his best). Lewis Hamilton, yesterday fastest, was 8th fastest today(1′ 37″448). In the afternoon his place was taken by test driver Pedro De la Rosa. “This week of testing has been productive - Hamilton said - we covered more than 1400 km working on improving reliability of the car. We also tried to improve the performances of the car in order to try to reduce the gap that separates us from Ferrari. I can hardly wait for the race [here]”.

Times of the day:
1, Kovalainen (Fin/Renault) 1′ 35″767 (55 laps)
2, Massa (Bra/Ferrari) 1′ 35″808 (72)
3, Davidson (Gb/Super Aguri) 1′ 36″787 (68)
4, Rosberg (Ger/Williams) 1′ 37″002 (104)
5, Montagny (Fra/Toyota) 1′ 37″206 (78)
6, Heidfeld (Ger/Bmw) 1′ 37″318 (70)
7, Button (Gb/ Honda) 1′ 37″326 (37)
8, Hamilton (Gb/McLaren) 1′ 37″448 (43)
9, Webber (Aus/Red Bull) 1′ 37″338 (42)
10, Liuzzi (Red Ita/Toro) 1′ 38″542 (56)
11, Klien (Aut/Honda) 1′ 39″176 (25)
12, De la Rosa (Spa/McLaren) 1′ 39″303 (24).

Source: Gazzetta.it

~ by Wiz Kid on March 31, 2007.