Jerez – Day 1 – Vettel surprise leader

Barely two days after the end of an eventful race weekend in Germany, nine teams and nine drivers, including only two regulars, gathered in Jerez, in southern Spain, for the first day of private testing of the week. To the great surprise of the stopwatch, it is Sebastian Vettel’s Toro Rosso that is leading.

The German, after bringing back two points from Hockenheim, tried many aerodynamic evolutions on their car. Like many other teams, Toro Rosso came to Jerez with a 2009 version package to test the first innovations. He drove notably with standard 2009 version tires.

Gary Paffett for McLaren takes the second position at the wheel of a modified MP4/23. He benefited from 2009 slick tires as well as new front and rear wings.

Luca Badoer is third. The Ferrari test driver made an effort to run to understand the problems encountered at Hockenheim, where Scuderia Ferrari did not achieve the expected result.

« A lot of data was obtained. It will be essential to understand our mistakes and lack of performance from the German weekend. » commented the Italian.

Nico Hülkenberg positions himself in fourth place with the Williams FW30/B. He was the only driver to cause a red flag on the track during a spin. He is ahead of the two Renault engines, first Buemi with Red Bull and then Grosjean with the French team.

Jarno Trulli was the second main driver on track today. He drove the Toyota TF109, or rather the TF108 adapted to the 2009 regulations. He also used slick tires but will drive tomorrow exclusively to prepare for the Hungarian GP.

Finally, BMW with Klien has no official time after having interrupted their testing session due to an issue encountered with the KERS system. A mechanic was slightly electrocuted when he touched Christian Klien’s F1.08. He had just completed three installation laps.

The German team announced it will resume testing tomorrow, without KERS.

Jerez Private Test Results – Day 1