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Schumacher back in Spain

It may be considered somewhat inevitable that, on his return to competitive Formula One driving after a year out of the car, Michael Schumacher topped the times on the first day of the Barcelona test.

That is not to detract in any way from the man, who piloted an F2007 with the 2008 electronics package, and without traction control, around the Catalunya Circuit in 1:21.992s, but to remind us of how much of a talent Michael is.

Luca Badoer, jumping between two Ferraris – one with and one without the 2008 package – came home in second place, two tenths of a second behind Schumacher.

Next, a full second behind the title winning car, came Pedro de la Rosa in the 2008 modified Mclaren MP4-22. The Spaniard was accompanied by Gary Paffet, and the Englishman showed well to record the sixth fastest time of the day, just eight one-thousandths beyond the 1:23 mark. Mindful of the vacant silver MP4-23, these two will be showing at their best over the next two days.

Between the Mclarens came Heikki Kovalainen in the sole Renault and Robert Kubica in the fastest of the BMW duo, Nick Heidfeld coming in tenth fastest in the sister car, with David Coulthard a good seventh in the quicker of the two Red Bull Racing runners.

Eighth fastest, and quickest Toyota powered runner, was Kazuki Nakajima in the Williams FW29, the young Japanese performing well to justify the team giving him a race drive next season, and outpacing paddock favourite Nico Rosberg by over half a second. Jarno Trulli, in the works Toyota TF107, came in ninth, half a second down on Nakajima, with his team mate for the day – Franck Montagny – finishing 12th, just behind Rosberg.

At Scuderia Toro Rosso all eyes were on Sebastien Bourdais, as the French Champ Car ace made his first runs as an official Formula One driver. However, as could be expected, it was team mate Sebastian Vettel who emerged quicker of the two, the German taking 13th to the Bourdais’ 15th, with the pair separated by around one tenth.

Between these two came the first of a confusing bunch, as young Andreas Zuber took 14th, just a little behind Vettel, in the Honda RA107. The confusion stems from Anthony Davidson setting 16th best time in what was listed as a Super Aguri, but appeared identical to the Honda bar a few advertising decals, and James Rossiter, 17th in the second Honda, which appeared exactly as the Super Aguri, bar the lack of any advertising decals. We understand that – officially – Zuber and Rossiter were running for Honda, and Davidson for Super Aguri.

Karin Chandhok did well to run to 19th in the second Red Bull, and the back markers were Giedo van der Garde and Roldan Rodriguez in the prettily attired Force India/Spyker cars.

Given the mixture of 2008 and 2007 specification runs today, it is difficult to know who was doing what, and when, and hence a true measure of relative pace is practically impossible to gauge. We will of course, bring you any information on the situation as soon as possible.

One thing is for certain, however, and that is that Michael Schumacher has lost none of his legendary pace. One wonders how he would measure up against Kimi Raikkonen, the new World Champion.

Written: Tue, 13 Nov 2007 17:19:48