Jerez – Day 3: Glock Deserves His Place! Even Rainy

Timo Glock has just shown that he deserved his place in Formula 1. The new Toyota driver in the TF108 set the fastest time on the third and penultimate day of private testing in Jerez (Spain).

The young German, GP2 champion last season, is the only driver to dip below the one-minute twenty-second mark, beating the McLaren MP4/23 of Lewis Hamilton, GP2 champion in 2006, by three-tenths… Together, they caused three red flags due to reliability issues.

Today, unlike yesterday, the weather was not ideal. Worse, it was even the rain that interfered with the tests. Conditions that don’t seem to bother the new Renault driver, Fernando Alonso. After achieving the best time on the second day, the Spanish double world champion recorded the 3rd best time this Wednesday, about half a second behind the leader.

Sébastien Bourdais positions himself 4th in the Toro Rosso. The Frenchman ensures that Red Bull’s B team has at least one car in the top 5 each day since 2008. His teammate, Sébastien Vettel, is last with 50 laps but has faced many various problems.

Massa in the first F2008 ranks only 5th with 85 laps on the counter. He was one of the most active on track with his teammate Räikkönen (8th) and Glock. The Brazilian is ahead of the first McLaren MP4/23 of Kovalainen and Kamui Kobayashi, the Toyota test driver on the TF107.

« The F2008 has improved on the flaws of the F2007, so everything is fine » stated the reigning world champion, Kimi Räikkönen, during the lunch break.

Coulthard, who was driving the first laps with the RB4, ranked 12th, completing 59 laps without problems if we overlook the engine failure eight minutes before the end of the session… He also expressed concern afterwards about reliability, which was the cause of their poor season last year.

Force India, which has not done much running until now, manages to achieve the 10th fastest time with Sutil.

Anthony Davidson had to settle for the pit, as Super-Aguri couldn’t repair the breakdown suffered since Monday due to bad luck… The faulty part was supposed to arrive by plane this morning, but the plane couldn’t land in Gibraltar and was diverted to Malaga. A team member went there, but without success as the highway was closed for roadworks…

Nico Hülkenberg, Williams’ test driver, is second to last (13th), far behind his teammate Nakajima, 9th.

Most of the teams have concluded their tests today, unless some decide to stay to make up for time lost due to rain. Only Renault will officially be on track tomorrow. The French team will indeed run Alvaro Parente, winner of the World Series by Renault.

Private Testing Jerez – Day 3

* 2008 cars