WINTER TESTING: Jerez (March)

The German was 1.3 seconds in front of Felipe Massa in the Ferrari on a day affected by a midday shower, as all the current 2009 machinery came together.

Massa was conducting set-up work but he lost some track time following an off-track excursion in the early afternoon.

Toyota marked their return to European testing, following two weeks in Bahrain, with test driver Kumui Kobayashi setting the third best time as he focused on aerodynamic evaluation work.

"This morning was my first real chance to try out the TF109 in dry conditions," said the Japanese. "From the first run the car felt easy to drive so we were able to get straight into our programme of aero work. It certainly feels like a step forward from last year.

"The shower interrupted our afternoon but we still made it through our programme. Overall it went well so this was a good day of testing for us."

Nico Rosberg was fourth fastest for Williams, ahead of Robert Kubica in the BMW Sauber and Giancarlo Fisichella in the new Force India.

Kubica started the day evaluating 2010 tyre designs for Bridgestone, with the rubber characteristics set to change next year to help car balance.

But having lost track time with an engine change in the morning, and only getting onto 2009 work following the lunchtime rain, Kubica switched his focus to race starts for the remainder of the day.

Pedro de la Rosa was seventh fastest in the McLaren, with Nelson Piquet ending the day at the bottom of the timesheets in the Renault R29 after suffering a few reliability problems.

"We had a few issues with the car today which limited our mileage, but we still managed to evaluate some of the new parts we brought to this test," said the Brazilian. "The track was improving throughout the day as we had a lot of cars running and so it should get better and better throughout the week.

"Looking ahead to tomorrow, the priority is to get more miles under our belt - the weather should be similar so hopefully we will get another dry day."

Today's testing times:
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Vettel Red Bull (B) 1:19.055 87
2. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:20.330 63
3. Kobayashi Toyota (B) 1:20.699 79
4. Rosberg Williams (B) 1:21.171 71
5. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) 1:21.292 47
6. Fisichella Force India (B) 1:21.584 31
7. de la Rosa McLaren (B) 1:21.831 94
8. Piquet Renault (B) 1:22.011 52

SOURCE: Autosport

That's a big margin in Red Bulls favour.... I'll say no more. McLaren have the new '09 rear wing, Williams are sporting the skate fins and cooling gills on the head protection. Ferrari have redesigned the sidepods on the F60 making them slightly taller and more McMerc-esque. Toyota are running new sidepod shields otherwise that's more or less all I can spot.

Part of the reason for the lack of pace for BMW and McLaren is 2010 rubber development, the tyres will be much harder to heat and wear much slower.

Vettel, what can i say....met you at Silverstone, got your picture and autograph, then you raced in the Indy GP because of Kubicas crash and scored points, moved to Toro Rosso, won a race and now you could be heading the field next year.....Man.....Im proud of you!

GLOCK FASTEST AT WET JEREZ:

Poor weather hindered Formula One testing once again this year, as rain hit the second day of work at the Jerez circuit.

The rain began to fall very early on and the asphalt was never dry enough to use slick tyres so teams were forced to make the best of the situation.

Timo Glock emerged as the quickest driver in the conditions, posting a best time of 1:30.979 after 89 laps of the Spanish track.

Glock took over from teammate Kamui Kobayashi at the wheel of the Toyota TF109, the German happy with his day's work despite the poor weather.

"It tends to be difficult to carry out meaningful testing when there is so much rain," said Glock. "The conditions made things tricky again today but at least it stayed consistently wet so we were able to go through some work on set-up and tyres.

"It also gave me a chance to get used to pushing the TF109 in these conditions and we put more mileage on the car. It felt good again, just like in Portugal last month, so I'm happy with the day."

BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica was second quickest as he worked on set-up options for the F1.09, his day being interrupted by a false electrical alarm that forced him to stop the car on track.

Williams's Nico Rosberg posted the third fastest time in the FW31, with Giancarlo Fisichella showing promising pace in the new Force India-Mercedes car, the Italian setting the fourth quickest time of the day despite covering just 54 laps.

Yesterday's pace-setter Sebastian Vettel had a more low-key session today in the Red Bull, finishing as fifth fastest ahead of Heikki Kovalainen in the McLaren.

Nelson Piquet was again slowest in the Renault, the Brazilian finishing over two seconds of Glock's pace.

"The wet weather today meant we had to change our programme and
simply worked on getting miles on the car and using the wet weather tyres," said Piquet.

"Because it continued raining throughout the day, the track conditions remained pretty consistent and so we were still able to learn some interesting things about the car."

The Ferrari team were also present at the track but decided not to run.

Today's times:
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Glock Toyota (B) 1:30.979 89
2. Kubica BMW-Sauber (B) 1:31.327 70
3. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:31.451 114
4. Fisichella Force India-Mercedes (B) 1:31.547 54
5. Vettel Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:32.220 102
6. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:33.371 91
7. Piquet Renault (B) 1:33.476 66

All Timing Unofficial

SOURCE: Autosport

ED: Seriously, they should just test at Silverstone. Yes it's cold here, but at least it's been dry!

Teams aren't having much luck with their choice of testing locations huh? KimisApprentice

Lol between rain and sand, only thing left is snow!

ICEMAN TOPS SNOW-HIT THIRD DAY OF TESTING IN JEREZ

Kimi Raikkonen was fastest in a blizzard-hit day in Jerez.

Jerez, in a country which is well known for never getting snow... ever... was hit by irregular weather, but the Iceman took advantage of it with a 1:32.236 on his Ferrari snowmobile.

Unfortunately for some drivers, the scenes came as a bit too much for their understanding. Nelson Piquet Jnr. was overheard asking why the clouds had dandruff.

Lewis Hamilton was a close 2nd, finishing with a 1:33.024. When questioned on how he could be so successful in such conditions, the World Champ responded "with the recent weather in the UK, it's nothing out of the ordinary. I mean, when I first attempted to drive in it, I did ram into Ron Dennis' car pretty hard when I lost control, but it just came naturally to me, like everything else in this world because I am God".

3rd was Nico Rosberg on a snowboard, lapping at 5:48.652. Many believe on this form, Nico will only win the single race this year, but will still take the title.

BMW's Nick Heidfeld was 4th, despite already previously driving his BMW F1 car on snow before.

"Thewe was just a lack of gwip on the wace twack and that made it difficult fow me to get any good times in", explained the German.

"Whilst it was a productive day, it was hard keeping track of Nick as we couldn't see his green helmet under all the snow," explained Dr. Mario Thiessen.

All other drivers stayed off track for the rest of the day, as Alonso and Dennis had a snowball fight, Mark Webber had to be restrained from going ice skating and Honda continued paperwork issues in their igloo at the end of the pitlane.

Rumours of Ecclestone planning an Antarctic GP are regarded as wide of the mark.

SOURCE: My imagination

OK guys, here's the REAL third day news:

GLOCK KEEPS TOYOTA ON TOP AT JEREZ

Timo Glock kept Toyota at the top of the times in testing at Jerez, showing that the Japanese squad's car is also fast in the dry.

Glock had been quickest in yesterday's rain-hit session, and the German showed impressive pace once again by topping the times with a best lap of 1:19.814.

He was the only driver to lap the Spanish circuit in less than 80 seconds.

"That was a productive day," said Glock. "This morning we were again a bit unlucky with the conditions, which made the race simulation quite tough. But it was useful to find out when to change to slick tyres and our pace wasn't bad.

"Then we got some dry running for the rest of the day. We did a lot of set-up work and late on we did some shorter runs to make it through the programme. We've made it through a lot of miles over these two days and we're making useful progress."

Felipe Massa returned to work after skipping yesterday's test, the Ferrari driver covering a massive 134 laps on his way to the second fastest time of the day, over four tenths of a second behind Glock.

Massa was joined by seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, who observed the session from the pit wall.

Renault's Fernando Alonso was the busiest man on track today, completing 152 laps onboard the R29, which moved away from the bottom of the times to finish in third position on the timesheets.

"Today was a very productive day as I managed to complete 152 laps which gave us lots of useful data," said the Spaniard. "At this stage of the season it's important to have as much time in the car as possible to get used to the new rules such as the moveable wings and the KERS system and so I'm happy to have done so much today.

"Everyday we keep learning new things and I'm feeling more and more comfortable in the car. Hopefully tomorrow we can have another dry day to build on the work we did today."

Heikki Kovalainen was again the man in charge of testing duties for McLaren, the Finn posting the fourth quickest time ahead of Adrian Sutil, who replaced Force India teammate Giancarlo Fisichella at the wheel of the new VJM02.

Sutil, who had completed the shakedown of the car last week, managed 63 laps and wound up less than a tenth of a second behind Kovalainen.

"I think today was a good day," said Sutil. "It was important to get into the car again and to get confident. The car was OK; there is definitely potential, and we were able to do more mileage and find some reliability in the afternoon.

"In the morning we had a little problem but we could fix it over lunch and start to do our programme. The tyres dominate a lot and the different compounds react differently: you have to find a good set up and get them to work and that is where we are concentrated now.

"We had some instability on the rear and oversteer, but we will see tomorrow. We are at least more reliable and can try and get some real mileage on the car now."

Australian Mark Webber was back in action with Red Bull as he continued working on getting fully fit for the start of the season. Webber finished in front of BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica, seventh fastest today.

"Overall it was a good day," Kubica said. "We were able to make up some of the time we lost yesterday when rain meant we had to change our schedule. I started on extreme wet tyres, changed to wet tyres and finally drove slick tyres.

"Together with the various different set-up solutions I tried that helped me get an even better feeling for the car."

Nico Rosberg was slowest for Williams, 1.5 seconds off the pace.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                       Time     Laps
1.  Glock         Toyota               (B)  1:19.814  141  
2.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  1:20.238  134  
3.  Alonso        Renault              (B)  1:20.296  152  
4.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:20.535   85  
5.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes (B)  1:20.621   63  
6.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:21.021   98  
7.  Kubica        BMW-Sauber           (B)  1:21.069   98  
8.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:21.412  125  

All Timing Unofficial

SOURCE: Autosport

ALONSO HEADS DAY FOUR

Fernando Alonso moved to the head of the times for Renault on day four of this week's Jerez test.

After a low-key start, the Renault R29 has shown increasing pace in recent tests, and Alonso underlined that improvement today by lapping in 1:19.945, 0.3 seconds quicker than his nearest rival, Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen.

"I'm very happy with the result from this test as we had two trouble-free days, a very consistent car and the work we have done has been very useful," said Alonso.

The weather again interrupted the test, with strong winds hampering teams' efforts to put mileage on their 2009 cars.

"The main problem throughout the day was the wind," said Jarno Trulli, who was fourth fastest for Toyota. "It was gusting and making it hard to make the comparisons we were looking for."

Nick Heidfeld completed the top three for BMW, followed by Trulli and Red Bull's Mark Webber.

World champion Lewis Hamilton took over the McLaren from teammate Heikki Kovalainen but was only seventh quickest, between Kazuki Nakajima (Williams) and Adrian Sutil (Force India). Hamilton also lost time during the morning when he had to stop while the team worked on his car's rear suspension.

Sutil was content with the new Force India, but had difficulty with the Bridgestone slicks.

"We tried the soft, supersoft and medium compounds," he said. "On the long runs they behaved quite differently and the biggest problem was with the graining. It happens very quickly, then gets worse and the grip never comes back.

"We are talking big differences in lap times - I have never had such a big graining issue, but I can see nearly everyone is struggling with a similar problem."

Force India and Renault are now heading back to their factories prior to next week's Barcelona test, but the other six teams are staying on at Jerez for a final day of running tomorrow.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                       Time      Laps
1.  Alonso        Renault               (B)  1:19.945  129  
2.  Raikkonen     Ferrari               (B)  1:20.250  104  
3.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber            (B)  1:20.520  98  
4.  Trulli        Toyota                (B)  1:20.540  131  
5.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:20.894  107  
6.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:20.948  83  
7.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:21.302  70  
8.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:21.411  79  

All Timing Unofficial

SOURCE: Autosport

QUICK NICK TOPS FINAL JEREZ SESSION

Nick Heidfeld posted the fastest time on the final day of testing at the Jerez circuit, where world champion Lewis Hamilton was involved in a low-speed crash.

BMW Sauber driver Heidfeld was the busiest man on track today, with 123 laps covered despite the circuit being hit by rain in the morning and by gusts of wind most of the day.

Heidfeld's best time of 1:20.052 put him over three tenths of a second ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, who also had a productive day in the Ferrari with 112 laps covered.

Hamilton was third quickest, but over a second off Heidfeld's pace, the Briton completing just 58 laps. The world champion lost control of his car due to a sudden gust of wind and ended up crashing backwards and damaging his McLaren's rear wing.

Red Bull's Mark Webber and Williams driver Kazuki Nakajima didn't complete many laps today either on their way to the fourth and fifth fastest times of the day respectively.

Jarno Trulli finished at the bottom of the times for Toyota after managing only 38 laps. The Italian's day came to an early finish after he suffered some damage to his front wing when running over the kerbs.

"That was a short day for us," said Trulli. "We lost the morning to the weather but in the afternoon we had a chance to try out the 2010 Bridgestone slick tyres. The conditions remained difficult because the wind was still strong.

"On one run I picked up some damage to the front wing after running over kerbs. Still, we made it through a number of runs and collected data for the future. As for this season, this test shows that things are going well for us so we can be confident."

Teams will be back in testing action next week in Barcelona.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                       Time     Laps
1.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:20.052  123  
2.  Raikkonen     Ferrari               (B)  1:20.404  112  
3.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:21.272   58  
4.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:22.219   47  
5.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:22.226   54  
6.  Trulli        Toyota                (B)  1:23.119   38  

All Timing Unofficial

SOURCE: Autosport

Consistency is the key!dan_dez

Indeed. Consistency and a little luck will go a long way.