The opening day of the Spa-Francorchamps test saw Lewis Hamilton put the disappointment of Silverstone behind him to take fastest time of the day.
The Englishman completed more laps than anyone else – 81 – on the way to a best time of 1:46.613 around the revised Ardennes mountain circuit as Grand Prix cars return to the spectacular track after an absence of a year.
Four tenths of a second behind the Mclaren came Robert Kubica, the Pole continuing the fine form he has shown for BMW since returning from his astonishing crash in Canada last month, while Felipe Massa came in third in the Ferrari, a further four tenths behind.
Next came Ralf Schumacher, the Toyota driver clearly happier with the TF107 of late, followed by Nelson Piquet Jnr in the Renault R27. Speculation at the test links Piquet with a run in the Williams FW29 with a view to the young Brazilian taking over Alex Wurz’s race seat in the near future.
David Coulthard ran to sixth for Red Bull with Nico Rosberg just behind in the Williams, and Tonio Liuzzi put in the laps in the Toro Rosso that he will hand over to Sebastian Bourdais for the second day.
James Rossiter and Christian Klien carried out the work for Super Aguri and Honda respectively, and Giedo van der Garde ran for Spyker. The last two mentioned are in the running for the Spyker race seat vacated by Christijan Albers.
Nick Heidfeld is notably absent from the test, having requested a break to receive further treatment for the back pain that troubled him at Silverstone.
Written: Wed, 11 Jul 2007 08:48:25
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