Barcelona I, day 2: Hulkenberg tops morning session

Day 2 / AM Session – February 22nd 2012; Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona

Day 2 at the Circuit de Catalunya got off to a somewhat different start to yesterday’s test day, with a change of not only drivers at various teams, but also a change of the number of teams present at the test.

After finding a problem with their chassis early on in the morning session yesterday, Lotus F1 Team opted to pull out of Barcelona’s test week entirely to return to the factory and focus on rectifying the issue found with the chassis. Evidently, the problem was a lot worse than the team originally made out.

This meant only 10 teams would be running for the rest of the week in Barcelona, and with Marussia F1 Team still running their 2011 challenger, the MVR-02, only 9 2012 spec cars would be pitting against each other.

Tyre compounds proved to be decider in this morning’s session, with different teams opting to run different compounds to each other over the course of the morning. Ultimately though, it would be Nico Hulkenberg on the super soft Pirelli tyres that would end the morning session on top of the time sheets. Hulkenberg was able to put his Force India VJM05 in P1 within the last 30 minutes of the session, posting a 1:22.608 and having totalled 63 laps.

Sergio Perez in the Sauber C31 was not far behind him in second place though, coming in at just 0.040 seconds behind Hulkenberg, after the team also opted for a quick late morning run on the super softs.

Sebastian Vettel had a very quiet morning in the Red Bull Racing RB8. Although slotting into third position on the morning timesheets, the car spent over two hours in the garage at one point, and Vettel was only able to clock 31 laps on the car. Although no reported problems on the car from the team, speculation in the paddock is that the electrical fault found in Jerez could be holding the team back once again. This is yet to be confirmed though.

Daniel Ricciardo in the STR7 beat Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso into fourth place, only just though, by 0.001 seconds to be precise. Bar a single red flag in the morning session caused once again by Ricciardo’s car, which ran out of fuel, the Australian had a somewhat uneventful morning, completing 45 laps. His best time was also set on the super soft compound. Fernando Alonso and Ferrari, fifth on the timesheets, once again opted to run general data tests over the course of the morning.

Lewis Hamilton, although running 45 total laps this morning, would only post 4 ‘flying’ laps this morning, and his quickest time was set early in the morning, good enough for sixth place, but almost one and a half seconds down on the pace set by Hulkenberg.

Nico Rosberg in the new Mercedes AMG F1 W03 would be the last man to get within two seconds of Hulkenberg this morning, posting a 1:24.555 and a chart topping total of 75 laps so far. Although not quick, Mercedes would focus their efforts on long runs and race simulation this morning, meaning the car was carrying a heavy fuel load.

Rookie reserve driver Valtteri Bottas was at the wheel of the Williams F1 FW34 today for the first time, and under the watchful eye of team-mate Bruno Senna, and newly appointed Williams F1 Team ‘Driver Mentor’ and ex-Formula 1 driver Alex Wurz, would complete 69 laps and a quickest time of 1:25.858, just over three seconds off the pace.

Vitaly Petrov, in his debut with the Caterham F1 Team, spent a lot of the morning getting “comfortable” in the car. Caterham would have to adjust his cockpit set-up and seating position before he was able to post a competitive flying lap. The work on the car meant Petrov would only manage 36 laps this morning, and bottom of the 2012 runners in P9.

Once again, Charles Pic in the Marussia F1 2011 challenger, the MVR-02, would bring up the back of the pack, over 5 seconds off the pace of the front runners.

Day 2 AM Session times and total lap numbers can be seen below: