On the day when the World Motor Sport Council was sitting in Paris to consider the Renault espionage case, as well as the legality of the 2008 McLaren, yet more meaningless testing times from sunny Jerez really do pale into insignificance.
Continuing theme of ‘irrelevance’ that has run throughout this current test, most of the days interest centred on the performance of a pair of brothers who are unlikely to be racing in the category next season. Of course, I refer to the Schumachers, one of whom – M – went rather quickly in a Ferrari, and the other – R – who developed a distinct fondness for the Spanish scenery, and spent more time in it than on track.
That is, in all fairness, a little unfair to the younger Schui, who endured a car failure this morning, but he did then proceed to crash – twice – on his way to a best time that beat, well, nobody, in fact. The rumoured appearance of Father Christmas, sadly, did not occur.
Fastest time of the day went to a last minute dash by Robert Kubica in the BMW, presumably on slick tyres just to confuse us, with Lewis Hamilton also vaulting up the order with a late lap on smoothies.
Just shy of the McLaren came Felipe Massa, the Brazilian easily the quicker of the Ferrari duo as Michael Schumacher managed only eighth. With half a second between them, it could be that the veteran was on grooves, but it could also be that he was half a second slower.
The merits of Ferrari using Michael Schumacher in this, and the previous, test are entirely lost on this writer as he will not be in the car come the first race in Melbourne. While his experience will clearly lend itself to setting up the car with the 2008 electronics package, it is not he who will be setting it up for that race, hence my belief that it should be the driver – Raikkonen – who gets time in the car, as opposed to one who has retired. Oh well, who are we to question the logic of Ferrari?
Fourth went to Mark Webber, the Australian making up for the disappointment of yesterday’s blown engine with a good late run (slicks? Probably) and fifth to Timo Glock, who continues to settle in well at Toyota.
Pedro de la Rosa came in sixth for Mclaren, the Spaniard subject of growing belief that he may well be elevated to a race seat next year, with Nelson Piquet Jnr next in line in the Renault.
Honda/Aguri had Rubens Barrichello and Takuma Sato running, as well as Luca Filippi, to ninth,18th and 16th respectively, and the Japanese was another to endure an off during the day, and Nick Heidfeld rounded out the top ten in the second BMW.
Nico Rosberg proved quicker of the Williams pair in eleventh, with team mate for the day Kazuki Nakajima 15th, while the battle of the Sebs raged once more at Toro Rosso, with Vettel taking the honours by just over a tenth from Bourdais.
Trulli tootled around in the Toyota to an exciting 14th, David Coulthard shouldered the Red Bull problems today and finished 17th, and Tonio Liuzzi was several tenths quicker than Ralf Schumacher, presumably as he stayed on the track.
So another day of completely meaningless times, but I guess it passes the time while we wait to see just how the FIA manage to absolve Renault of any blame.
UpdateSport will bring you a full report of running on the final day at Jerez tomorrow.
Written: Thu, 06 Dec 2007 16:53:34
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