Jerez Day 1 – Buemi on top but Vettel makes an impression

Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull Racing showcased all the capabilities of the new RB5. He is the fastest among those driving a 2009 single-seater on this first day of official testing in Jerez, Spain.

Sébastien Buemi is at the top of the timing sheets as regularly seen over the winter, continuing to run a 2008 car. However, all eyes were on the new single-seaters to try to establish an early hierarchy for the upcoming season.

At the end of the session, Vettel was above all the other teams in terms of performance, comfortably positioning himself ahead of Williams and McLaren during a day partially spoiled by rain.

« We had a failure of one of the sensors in the gearbox and we stopped the car to avoid any damage, » said Vettel.

Nico Hülkenberg is third, less than three-tenths of a second behind Vettel. The young Williams driver ran with an inactive KERS for the moment. His best time is 1:22.443 in the final phase of this session.

Heikki Kovalainen is in fourth position for McLaren. He continued the evaluation of the MP4-24, while Nelson Piquet for Renault finished only seven-tenths of a second behind his competitors, after spending almost the entire day at the bottom of the standings.

Results of Private Testing Spain – Day 1 – Tuesday, February 10, 2009: