Following the dominant Ferrari showing of yesterday today was McLaren territory as new signing Heikki Kovalainen confirmed his professed comfort within the team.
A lap time of exactly one minute eleven seconds put the Finn over six tenths faster than the Ferrari duo of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen – the Brazilian bettering the World Champion by two tenths – with Lewis Hamilton next best in the second MP4-23 and a further two tenths down.
Reliability among the front runners again appeared solid, with the top four all recording over 80 laps, and Hamilton a promising 110.
Fastest non-2008 car was Kazuki Nakajima in the Williams FW29b, the Japanese shading Hamilton by a couple of tenths and outpacing Fernando Alonso in the Renault R28 by a fraction. Nico Rosberg – running again in the new Williams FW30 – continued to find the baseline for the car on his way to seventh.
Red Bull Racing had a better day than yesterday, with Mark Webber positive about the RB4 as he managed almost 90 laps and eighth fastest, but BMW-Sauber appear to be struggling a little at this stage of the game.
Nick Heidfeld has alluded to balance problems with the F1.08 and, although confident these can be ironed out prior to Melbourne, went quicker in the F1.07 than team mate Robert Kubica in the new car.
The back end of the field saw the two Toro Rosso’s vying with Toyota, Force India, and the first running of the Honda RA108.
Testing continues tomorrow.
Written: Wed, 23 Jan 2008 17:15:36
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