Barcelona – Days 2 and 3 – Full House for the Red Bulls

The Red Bull and Toro Rosso drivers showcased the performances of their cars during the last two days of private testing in Barcelona.

In variable conditions, Saturday and Sunday, it was the Bull drivers who posted the best performances, each time ahead of the two McLarens. Summary of these last two days in Barcelona.

Day 2

The Toro Rosso drivers showcased all their skills last Saturday by recording the two fastest times on the second day of private testing in Barcelona.

Sebastian Vettel edged out his teammate Sébastien Bourdais by only one-tenth with each having completed around 90 laps. Both Sebastians conducted tests for the small team to assess the real potential of the STR02 2008 version, as a new version was not planned for the first Grand Prix of the season.

With their qualifying laps, the Toro Rossos are ahead of the two McLarens, Hamilton in the top 3 and Kovalainen four-tenths of a second further back.

Kubica for BMW confirms the progress and takes 5th place, ahead of the two Renault R28s of Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet.

Honda, which continues testing with the new RA108, still disappoints, with Button only achieving the thirteenth time and many mechanical problems.

Williams, which faced disruptions on Friday following Nakajima’s off-track incident, was finally able to resume testing for just one day. Williams announced on Saturday that it would halt its testing due to a lack of equipment on Saturday evening.

Day 2 Result – Private Testing Barcelona

Day 3

For the last scheduled day in Barcelona in February, it is once again a single-seater marked with a Red Bull that sets the fastest time as Australian Mark Webber in a Red Bull outpaced Heikki Kovalainen by 0.3 seconds.

The Red Bull RB4 showed real progress this week, notably due to the introduction of new aerodynamic elements and a new engine version provided by Renault.

Behind Webber, the two McLarens share the podium, Kovalainen ahead of Hamilton, unlike the day before.

Renault and BMW seem to be in perfect competition since the beginning of the year; both teams are each trying to take the lead day by day. Kubica (4th) is ahead of a Renault for the second time, but only by a small margin as the Pole is only 17 thousandths faster than Alonso (5th).

Bourdais, who is also making progress, takes 7th place this Sunday, only 5 tenths behind the leader; the top 10 are within just 9 tenths of each other.

Still struggling, Honda with Barrichello and Button takes the last positions, in 11th and 13th place respectively.

On this last day in Barcelona, two other events disrupted the session for the drivers and teams. Indeed, rain made its appearance at the end of the day, around 4 PM.

Hamilton was also particularly affected today when the Briton was insulted by Alonso’s supporters seeking revenge for his 2007 season with McLaren. Banners also targeted Ron Dennis and his team.

Result Day 3 – Private Testing Barcelona