Jerez – Day 4 – Kovalainen takes the record!

Heikki Kovalainen set the fastest time on the 4th and final day of private testing at the Jerez circuit in Spain. The young Finn took advantage of this opportunity to set the track record with an F1 by going under the 1’18” mark.

The McLaren driver, with the new MP4/23, tested new brakes and especially a new wheel cover, which already seems effective during his race simulations. With a time of 1’17”974, Kovalainen takes the lap record at Jerez, beating David Coulthard by nearly half a second.

The Red Bull proved to be very competitive again today, surpassing a Williams, Nakajima’s, by more than 6 tenths. In third place, the Japanese driver is more than a second behind the leader.

Lewis Hamilton and Robert Kubica complete the top 5. They are ahead of Sebastian Vettel’s Toro Rosso with only 53 laps completed, mainly due to two engine failures.

The other red flag was caused by Nico Hülkenberg, the Williams test driver, two hours before the end of the session.

With 134 laps and the 7th fastest time, Nelson Piquet continued his learning process. He completed the most laps today, ahead of his teammate Lucas di Grassi, who followed Alonso, by a second and a half…

Bourdais (Toro Rosso), Heidfeld (BMW), and Webber (Red Bull) complete the top 10 on the last day.

The teams were able to take advantage of milder conditions than the previous day and did a lot of driving.

Particularly Honda, with Button and Wurz who completed more than 220 laps together without great performances. They are 12th and last with the RA108, very far from Kovalainen’s McLaren.

The next tests will take place in a week, in Barcelona, from February 19 to 21, in the presence of the 11 teams from the 2008 lineup.

Jerez Private Testing – Day 4