Mugello Tests – Day 2: Grosjean and Kobayashi in the Lead

For the second day of testing scheduled at the Mugello circuit, teams were able to enjoy milder weather than yesterday, which allowed the drivers to run extensively throughout the day. Romain Grosjean, who was replacing Kimi Räikkönen at the wheel of the Lotus, set the fastest time of the morning, with a 1:21.603.

But the French driver ultimately shares this first place in today’s standings with Kamui Kobayashi, who clocked exactly the same time at the wheel of his Sauber at the end of the session. Both men are ahead of the Red Bull drivers, Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, and Felipe Massa at the wheel of the Ferrari.

The drivers experienced a rather quiet day, except for Paul di Resta. Indeed, the Scottish driver had a hydraulic problem on his Force India and only completed his first timed lap a few minutes before the session ended. He eventually ended with 14 laps on the board, far from the 144 laps completed by Michael Schumacher, who was the most active on track today in Italy. Following the issues encountered by Paul di Resta, the Sahara Force India team decided to change its program by having the Scottish driver run tomorrow morning. Nico Hülkenberg, who was supposed to run all day, will now only drive tomorrow afternoon.

The Marussia team also encountered issues with the MR01, a power steering problem, which did not allow Charles Pic and Timo Glock, who were sharing the work today, to drive as much as they could have.

After barely driving yesterday, Schumacher was able to make up for lost time. The 144 laps completed correspond to a little more than 750 km, roughly the distance of two Grand Prix. Vitaly Petrov, with 112 laps completed, Felipe Massa with 106 laps, and Bruno Senna with 100 laps also took advantage of a dry track to do a lot of laps.

Private F1 Tests – Mugello – Day 2 Standings