Barcelona Testing 2 – Day 2: Grosjean Puts His Lotus at the Top

This second day of the second private testing session held in Barcelona began on a soaked track, but with the regular passes of the drivers, it dried out and the drivers were able to complete fast laps on a dry racing line.

In the end, it’s the Lotus E21 that finishes at the top of the timesheet with a lap of 1:22.716 set by Romain Grosjean on soft tires, only 23 thousandths slower than the best time set yesterday by Mark Webber at the wheel of the Red Bull.

Behind the French driver, we find Jenson Button’s McLaren, Pastor Maldonado’s Williams, and in 4th place, Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) and Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) finished far off in terms of lap times, second to last and last, but these two teams chose to focus on long stints rather than performance. There’s nothing to worry about, especially since the coming days should offer more favorable weather, allowing teams to focus more on performance.

In terms of attendance, the last are the first because at the top of the rankings for the number of laps covered is Nico Rosberg, with 117 laps completed. The German driver is ahead of Fernando Alonso (100 laps) and Romain Grosjean (85 laps covered).

There were several session interruptions due to stops on the track, but no major issues have been reported for the eleven teams present today at the Circuit de Catalunya.

Results of private tests in Barcelona – Friday, March 1, 2013: