Jerez Testing – Day 1: Räikkönen Ahead, McLaren and Ferrari Lagging Behind

Even though it doesn’t mean much at this early stage of the 2012 season, Kimi Räikkönen is indeed back and appeared quite comfortable behind the wheel of the new Lotus E20—different from the car presented at the end of last week—by setting the fastest time of the day and completing 75 full laps. His time, at 1:19.670, achieved in the morning, is already faster than all the laps covered during last year’s test days on the Spanish track.

He is ahead of Paul di Resta in the Force India, who completed around a hundred laps and came within a tenth of a second of the returning Finn. Nico Rosberg, with a 2011 Mercedes, finished third.

Victim of a problem with the delivery of certain components, Red Bull was only able to get Mark Webber on track late, just before the break, to finally manage 53 laps in the remainder of the day, falling eight-tenths behind Räikkönen. However, the speed displayed by the RB8 suggests that the Australian driver did not fully reveal his hand, as is customary during these tests.

Then comes Daniel Ricciardo, a little over a second behind in the STR7, having covered 57 laps but was notably the cause of the first red flag of the day due to an oil pressure problem that brought him to a stop on the track. Michael Schumacher, who took to the track in the afternoon with the W02 as well, ranks sixth.

Kamui Kobayashi, seventh, 1.6 seconds behind Räikkönen, caused the second red flag of the session in the late afternoon due to a fuel shortage, likely intentional on the part of the Sauber team, in order to test the fuel consumption of the C31.

You have to go down to the eighth and ninth positions to find Jenson Button (60 laps) and Felipe Massa (69 laps), who are respectively 1.8 and 3.1 seconds behind the best time. These are not very significant pieces of information, as the programs are completely unknown and certainly not yet focused on performance improvement.

Heikki Kovalainen was quickly halted today (28 laps) due to a starter problem, even though his day had started well. Pastor Maldonado, driving the freshly presented Williams FW34, completed only 28 laps to finish 3.7 seconds behind the Lotus. Pedro de la Rosa brought up the rear, at the wheel of last season’s HRT, at 4 seconds (44 laps).

The times and performances are therefore currently only slightly significant and the only certainties are at the level of the car designs: the Lotus has seen its nose modified compared to what was shown during the official presentation, while Ferrari and McLaren have come out practically as they were unveiled, at least for today.

Private Testing in Jerez – Day 1