Webber shows Red Bull's strength in Catalunya
Webber went fastest on day one of testing in Catalunya
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By Adam Leveridge
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Friday, 26, Feb 2010 02:08
By Adam Leveridge.
Red Bull Racing's Mark Webber ended day one of testing at the Catalunya circuit in Barcelona on Thursday at the top of the timesheets, having recorded a series of short, low-fuel runs.
The Australian demonstrated the pace of the RB6 with a 1m21.487 - a time that was set towards the end of the morning session and was almost one second faster than everybody else at the end of play.
Having secured the top-spot, Webber and Red Bull turned to long runs, until the fuel-laden RB6 came to a halt out on track, 26 laps in.
Webber's closest challenger was Williams new-boy Nico Hulkenburg, the German covering 82 laps while working on setups and carrying out mandatory system checks, on his way to recording a 1m22.407 to go second overall.
Nico Rosberg, who set a best time of 1m22.517 in his Mercedes GP W01, concentrated on setup and pit-stop simulations over long runs.
The German added 107 laps to his tally on Thursday, however, his day was disrupted when his car came to a stop out on track just after pitting for a new set of tyres, causing the third red flag situation of the day.
"We had a productive day today and we were able to learn a great deal from doing so many laps," said Rosberg.
"We're making good use of the testing time that we have and I'm feeling quite confident and comfortable in the car.
"Aerodynamically the car will change quite significantly for the first race in Bahrain so we're not focusing on the details but on general set-up work and seeing how the car behaves over long runs.
"Working through the race weekend procedures and pit stops is also very useful in our preparations for Bahrain."
Fernando Alonso had a far from perfect day, as his morning was disrupted by an problem with the electronics on his F10.
Ferrari had cured the issues just after lunch and Alonso was able to return to the track to go on to rack-up 74 laps while testing aerodynamic upgrades.
"It wasn't a perfect day, but it was very helpful nevertheless," Fernando said.
"We had several new things in the car and we collected some data to see how they work. Now we've got to understand how to exploit them.
"The track wasn't great today. A little dirty and windy. It's always interesting to drive on a circuit, where you'll also have a grand prix, because you start seeing some aspects you'll have to deal with later on. All in all I'd say it was a good day."
Jenson Button caused the red flags to appear again just minutes before five o' clock, however, it was Lucas di Grassi and Virgin who had the most spectacular incident of the day when the GP2 graduate binned his VR-01 into the barriers at Turn nine, damaging the car's rear end.