Barcelona – Day 1 – Hamilton wins the first round

The McLaren driver and vice-world champion Lewis Hamilton clocked the fastest time on the first day of testing this week in Barcelona. The Briton narrowly edged out the reigning world champion, Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari), and the retired Michael Schumacher by just a few hundredths.

Last week, during testing at the same Catalunya circuit in the Northwest of Spain, McLaren seemed to have closed the gap with Ferrari. Today, for this final week of testing, McLaren appears to have chipped away a few more milliseconds per lap on the Scuderia, clearly leveling with them.

Under mild conditions, especially from midday onwards, the 10 teams present (with the absence of Super-Aguri) were able to test their latest aerodynamic components to be used for the upcoming Australian GP.

Behind Hamilton, Ferrari relied on the experience of a former world champion, as the German Michael Schumacher, retired since the end of 2006, was testing the F2008 alongside Räikkönen. The latter was slightly faster with an equivalent number of kilometers covered.

Williams is showing increasing strength this season, and at the right time, with the first Grand Prix just under two weeks away. The British team places Nakajima in 4th position, ahead of Kovalainen (McLaren). Rosberg in the second FW30 is 6th. He is also the last to go under the 1 minute 23 seconds mark.

Alonso in the Renault R28 is 7th and ahead of Heidfeld (BMW), Webber (Red Bull), and Vettel in the Toro Rosso, who rounds out the top 10.

Nick Heidfeld did not have a very good day with his F1.08. He caused two red flags in the morning. Another issue, this time experienced by Vettel. He had to stop shortly before the lunch break while Piquet (14th with 42 laps) hit the wall along the pits. He had to prematurely abandon his session in the second Renault…

Force India was running for the first time with its new VJM01. The car shows progress with Sutil ranking in 11th position. His teammate and test driver, Liuzzi, is 13th.

Once again, the Toyota and Honda teams seem to be lagging behind. Test driver Kobayashi – 15th, commented: « We were only able to start driving late in the morning after the track’s moisture began to dry out. We found new setups on the car and the balance has significantly improved. Overall, it remains a bad day for us… »

Private Tests Barcelona – Day 1 – 25/02/2008