I was going to make a comment about Mclaren leaving the testing equipment on, then I remembered Button's bizarre retirement from Monaco in 2010!
Mostly missed today's testing but after a quick scan of times I was impressed by the mileage Hamilton got in today, closely followed by Bottas and the Hulk. Hulk got some good times in all through the day today so hopefully the Force India has some real pace
I don't really pay much significance to small teams coming in the top 3 times in testing, but Force India seem to be up there quite a bit
Force India I must say have looked good in all the tests, that said so did Williams last year as I recall. Speaking of Williams, their mileage is good but their pace seems to be off a bit. Same goes for Caterham.
Trackside at Barcelona: Red Bull vs McLaren Some key points: Turn 1: Hamilton, frankly, looked mighty through here. Late on the brakes, he banged down the gears with absolute confidence and was able to get on the power very fractionally earlier than Vettel...and stay there. Both cars handed the transition from Turn 2 into Turn 3 very well, but Hamilton opted for a slightly wider line on entry and a more aggressive turn-in, to which the car responded excellently, while Vettel held his Red Bull on a tighter line. Campsa was more revealing. It is preceded by a medium-speed left-hander, in which the McLaren looked a little more of a handful than the Red Bull. In Campsa itself, both cars looked excellent, certainly a far cry from the days when Red Bull was able to take the corner a gear higher than anyone else! It's hard to imagine that the McLaren is giving away any large amount of downforce in the quick stuff. At the chicane both cars looked pretty good, although just as in Jerez it still appears that the Red Bull is less unsettled by the kerbs. Ferrari still doesn't look right. In the transition from the exit of Turn 2 into Turn 3, Alonso was having to work hard on the throttle to get the car to do roughly what he wanted and there were plenty of wobbles that suggest that the car is not giving him enough consistent grip There's a bit more in there but I feel I've stolen enough as it is
Maldonado's 1m24.537 is Williams best so far in Barcelona by a fair margin, hopefully they can at least get into the real midfield this year.
10:54 Maldonado improves to a 1m23.338s to go fastest Almost 2.5 Secs quicker than days 1 and 2 now. Are they show boating or can they really improve this year.
@InsideFerrari: It is a long break for a mechanical issue. We hope we can go back on track before the lunch break.
Williams did this last year. They are a publicly listed company now and need to attract some money, bit of a cheap trick to get some money out of some not too bright sponsors I imagine.
Hulk yesterday 1m22.608s on Super softs Maldonado today 1m22.612s on softs - Over 3 seconds faster than day 1 and 2 in Barcelona now, somethings up Morning update: <style type="text/css"> table.tableizer-table {border: 1px solid #CCC; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;} .tableizer-table td {padding: 4px; margin: 3px; border: 1px solid #ccc;} .tableizer-table th {background-color: #0832CB; color: #FFF; font-weight: bold;} </style> <table class="tableizer-table"> <tr class="tableizer-firstrow"><th>P </th><th>Driver </th><th>Team </th><th>Time </th><th>Laps</th></tr> <tr><td>1 </td><td> Maldonado</td><td>Williams</td><td> 1m22.612s</td><td>47</td></tr> <tr><td>2 </td><td> Kobayashi</td><td>Sauber</td><td> 1m23.582s +0.970</td><td>50</td></tr> <tr><td>3 </td><td> Button</td><td>McLaren</td><td> 1m23.950s +1.338</td><td>34</td></tr> <tr><td>4 </td><td> Schumacher</td><td>Mercedes</td><td> 1m24.053s +1.441</td><td>44</td></tr> <tr><td>5 </td><td> Vergne</td><td>Toro Rosso</td><td> 1m24.433s +1.821</td><td>42</td></tr> <tr><td>6 </td><td> Massa</td><td>Ferrari</td><td> 1m24.771s +2.159</td><td>33</td></tr> <tr><td>7 </td><td> Webber</td><td>Red Bull</td><td> 1m24.835s +2.223</td><td>26</td></tr> <tr><td>8 </td><td> Glock</td><td>Marussia</td><td> 1m26.824s +4.212</td><td>39</td></tr> <tr><td>9 </td><td> Petrov</td><td>Caterham</td><td> 1m26.929s +4.317</td><td>14</td></tr> <tr><td>10 </td><td> Di Resta</td><td>Force India</td><td> 1m27.180s +4.568</td><td>20</td></tr></table> Big spread in times and number of laps so far today.
Lunch time!!!<style type="text/css"> table.tableizer-table {border: 1px solid #CCC; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;} .tableizer-table td {padding: 4px; margin: 3px; border: 1px solid #ccc;} .tableizer-table th {background-color: #104E8B; color: #FFF; font-weight: bold;} </style> <table class="tableizer-table"> <tr class="tableizer-firstrow"><th>P </th><th>Driver </th><th>Team </th><th>Time </th><th>Laps</th></tr> <tr><td>1 </td><td> Maldonado</td><td>Williams</td><td> 1m22.391s</td><td>52</td></tr> <tr><td>2 </td><td> Schumacher</td><td>Mercedes</td><td> 1m23.384s +0.993</td><td>54</td></tr> <tr><td>3 </td><td> Kobayashi</td><td>Sauber</td><td> 1m23.582s +1.191</td><td>59</td></tr> <tr><td>4 </td><td> Button</td><td>McLaren</td><td> 1m23.918s +1.527</td><td>39</td></tr> <tr><td>5 </td><td> Vergne</td><td>Toro Rosso</td><td> 1m24.433s +2.042</td><td>42</td></tr> <tr><td>6 </td><td> Massa</td><td>Ferrari</td><td> 1m24.771s +2.380</td><td>48</td></tr> <tr><td>7 </td><td> Webber</td><td>Red Bull</td><td> 1m24.835s +2.444</td><td>26</td></tr> <tr><td>8 </td><td> Glock</td><td>Marussia</td><td> 1m26.173s +3.782</td><td>51</td></tr> <tr><td>9 </td><td> Petrov</td><td>Caterham</td><td> 1m26.929s +4.538</td><td>23</td></tr> <tr><td>10 </td><td> Di Resta</td><td>Force India</td><td> 1m27.180s +4.789</td><td>20</td></tr></table> Fastest 3 also completed the most amount of laps.
Good number of laps covered by Ferrari. Maldonado's run was surely a qualifying sim - others said Williams were lacking pace.
