Button hits top as testing in Jerez comes to close
Button went quickest in the morning, before settling into a series of heavy-fuel runs
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By Darren Estwick. |  |
Sunday, 21, Feb 2010 10:58
By Adam Leveridge
Jenson Button ended the eighth and final day of testing in Jerez on top, beating the fastest overall time from the last two weeks with a 1m18.871.
The reigning world champion set his time during Saturday morning, before switching to long runs for the rest of the day and Renault's Robert Kubica ended the session in second place, just two tenths down.
"It was a good day and we tried a lot of different things, which has given us lots of useful information," said Kubica.
"To begin with we did some evaluation with different fuel loads to check the balance of the car and then in the afternoon we did long runs with heavy fuel to simulate a race distance.
"We completed most of the programme and I was pretty happy with the car."
Having set the fastest time on Friday, Mark Webber languished down in eighth place when he lost hours of running during the morning when his Red Bull RB6 suffered an engine failure.
Webber will be hoping this is not a sign of things to come and the same reliability issues that blighted their 2009 campaign will not hold that Red Bull back this season.
However, despite the delay, Webber is pleased with the progress made by Red Bull over the last three weeks.
"The weather was a lot kinder to us on the last two days and we learned a hell of a lot, no question about it," said Webber.
"We did a lot of stuff with Renault and also learned about the aerodynamics and the chassis - there were lots of things we kept throwing into the fire and we kept learning, so that was good.
"We need a nice clear run in Barcelona and a little more reliability there and we're ready to go racing."
Kamui Kobayashi ended the day in third on the times, having recorded a series of quick times in the afternoon, and Tonio Liuzzi finished up in fourth ahead of Nico Rosberg and Fernando Alonso, who is satisfied with the pace of the Ferrari F10.
"The F10 is growing very well and there's nothing that should worry us," said Alonso.
"We worked on the long run today and the signs we got are really positive.
"Naturally we have to improve, because we're not at the max, but we're getting there. We're going the right way."
Jarno Trulli completed the most running of all on Saturday, clocking up 141 laps in total.
The Lotus driver took over the controls of the T127 from his team-mate Heikki Kovalainen for the final day of testing at the southern Spanish venue, but never climbed higher than 11th.
Trulli said: "It was a very positive day. I'm really happy about my first day testing with Lotus Racing and I was very lucky to have everything right on the car today with no major issues.
"We were able to put a lot of mileage on the car and get a lot of information out of it.
"I had the chance to start developing a real feel for the car and it's good to be here."