UpdateF1 >> Formula 1 News > Schui rules again at Barcelona

The master at work

It was another trip into the past at the Catalunya Circuit today as Michael Schumacher continued his impressive return to F1 testing on the second day of the three day test.

The German finished the day with a best time of 1:21.486 after a formidable 90 laps as he strives to help Ferrari understand the F2007 with the 2008 electronics package, and again his main opposition came from Pedro de la Rosa in the similarly revised Mclaren MP4-22, the Spaniard setting a best of 1:21.857.

Third fastest time went to Heikki Kovalainen, the young Finn shouldering all of Renaults work for the second day, with a time just shy of de la Rosa’s, and a couple of tenths further back was Felipe Massa, the Brazilian enduring an early failure that hampered his running, yet coming back to complete 56 laps.

Gary Paffett continues to show well in the second Mclaren, the Englishman setting a time just slower than Massa for fifth fastest, and the merest fraction quicker than Nico Rosberg who put the Williams FW29 in sixth.

Seventh place went to David Coulthard, the veteran Scot a couple of tenths down on Rosberg and a further four tenths quicker than Nick Heidfeld in the faster of the two BMW-Saubers.

Heidfeld completed the most laps of the front runners with 102, only exceeded by Adrian Sutil for Force India.

Kazuki Nakajima again went well in the Williams for ninth fastest place, with Sebastian Vettel the faster of the ‘Seb twins’ at Toro Rosso in tenth place.

A notable performance saw young Karun Chandhok set 11th fastest time of the day, just half a second behind Coulthard in the sister Red Bull and a bog improvement on yesterday’s efforts.

Jenson Button returned to action in the Honda to set twelfth position, and was joined by the second of Honda’s guest drivers this week, Luca Filippi, the young Italian GP2 driver managing 16th best, within a quarter of a second of Button, on his debut for the team.

Thirteenth went to Jarno Trulli in the Toyota, the driver still recovering from a fever, and Franck Montagny again accompanied him, setting 18th best on the day.

Robert Kubica had a the bulk of the troubles at BMW, managing less than 40 laps on his way to 19th, and he headed Anthony Davidson in the Super Aguri-Honda by a tenth of a second.

Sebastien Bourdais continued his learning curve at Toro Rosso, putting in 17 laps on the way to 17th place, and all that is left is to mention the Force India driver merry-go-round.

On the carousel alongside Adrian Sutil today were a more experienced pair than yesterday, with Christian Klien faster of the three, Sutil next, and Tonio Liuzzi fractionally slower of the trio.

So the return of Michael Schumacher is, as far as we know, complete, and it has been - undeniably - a successful reunion of driver and team. Was it worth the effort? That question will be answered in the coming season, but the services of a seven times world champion can only be considered an advantage.

Written: Wed, 14 Nov 2007 17:08:52