Jerez Day 2 – Buemi takes on Vettel!

Sébastien Buemi was once again convincing today in Spain and set the fastest time in the testing session in Jerez for the second day. The young Swiss largely dominates Sebastian Vettel, despite being the new star.

Sébastien Buemi has been testing on the Jerez circuit, in the south of Spain, since last Tuesday; each time, the young Swiss has made a mark. He proved that he could now aspire to a place in F1 by setting the fastest time of the day, ahead of Sebastian Vettel. The latter caused a red flag by going off the track without any harm in the morning.

The two men have driven for Red Bull, Buemi replacing Mark Webber, who is still in rehabilitation following his bike accident. According to Buemi, everything is going well: « Everything went very well today. We are making progress lap after lap, and it’s really encouraging for the future! »

Nick Heidfeld took third place on the timesheet. He was still working with a BMW F1.08 hybrid, and still on slick tires. Everything went well, except for a technical incident at the start of the session this morning: « After the delay in the morning, the rest was almost perfect. It was generally a very good day. » The German commented.

« I was able to analyze the state of wear of the slick tires under ideal conditions and we also conducted start simulations. This field obviously concerns tires… »

His teammate at BMW, Robert Kubica, primarily focused on evaluating the KERS, the kinetic energy recovery system, which is still not officially confirmed whether it will be mandatory in F1 in 2010. Some teams, such as Renault, have not started studying the system.

Kazuki Nakajima was the only other test driver today. He completed 105 laps alone on the Williams side and did not encounter any major problems. He went wide in the morning but finished his program smoothly with a Williams equipped with front and rear wings meeting the 2009 standards.

Results Private Tests Jerez – Day 2 – December 16, 2008