Barcelona – Day 1 – Rosberg dominates thanks to the weather

The teams present in Barcelona deemed it unnecessary to spend on testing today. With poor weather conditions, scattered rain showers, and cool temperatures (13°), only eight cars were on track today with only 4 out of 10 teams.

With these difficulties, only the Williams did a lot of laps, thus assessing their performance level in the rain. With 76 laps, Rosberg gained a significant advantage over his teammate, by nearly two seconds. Nakajima completed 40 actual track laps out of his 96 counted, for various start and refueling tests.

Dickie Stanford, the Williams test director, commented: « The rain disrupted our program with intermittent showers. But we were able to do quite a few laps, more than the other teams, and test new elements of our 2008 package. »

Webber signs with only 26 laps for the third-fastest time. He ran mainly when the weather was favorable. His teammate, David Coulthard, is 5th, with 22 laps to his name. He single-handedly caused two red flags due to various mechanical issues.

Between the two Red Bulls slots the new and former Renault driver, Fernando Alonso on the R28. He completed only 16 laps, helpless against the time. Nelson Piquet took to the track for only 8 laps before stopping at the side of the track.

Toyota was also in the mix: With Trulli, 6th fastest time, the team completed 57 laps, while Kobayashi, the test driver, only took to the track for a warm-up lap before spending the rest of the day in the pits.

« It was a tough day with this weather. We particularly focused on new aerodynamic elements and made good progress, obtaining a lot of data. »

McLaren and Super Aguri were present today. McLaren confirmed they have to wait for good weather before heading out on the track, while Super Aguri had to cancel their tests this week.

Private Testing – Barcelona – Day 1 – 19/02/2008