Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen was fastest in Formula One testing with all 10 teams in action on Tuesday and new F1 outfit Brawn GP recording the third-quickest lap time.
Raikkonen’s best lap time of 1 minute, 20.314 seconds around the Catalunya Circuit was more than half a second faster than his closest rival, Kazuki Nakajima of Williams.
Rubens Barichello was behind the wheel for Brawn GP for the first time since Ross Brawn bought the team from Honda last Friday. The 37-year-old Brazilian had a fastest time of 1:20.966 from 111 laps, with Brawn GP adapting well to its Mercedes engine.
“If the management group, because it is not just myself, had not taken this task on, there would be no team,” Brawn told autosport.com of the Honda buyout.
“It wasn’t a difficult choice in that respect. Things can go wrong, but we are optimistic and if we can capitalize on the performance of the car, and the car looks good, then I think the team have got a future. If the car was poor then we only have ourselves to blame,” he said.
Brawn confirmed that chief executive Nick Fry would stay on with the team, while Barichello said he hadn’t spoken to Bruno Senna since being picked over the nephew of the late three-time champion Ayrton Senna to partner Jenson Button this season.
“It is sheer coincidence that we ended up after the same place at the same time,” Barichello said. “He has a future in F1 for sure. I haven’t seen anyone just yet with the capability of having run four years in cars, and all of a sudden getting to F1, and doing so well like he did in testing.”
Toyota’s Jarno Trulli and Mark Webber of Red Bull rounded out the top five, while McLaren continued to lag behind the pacesetters with Heikki Kovalainen finishing more than 1.6 seconds behind fellow Finnish driver Raikkonen.
Toro Rosso’s second day in the 2009 car went badly after Sebastien Bourdais had a mechanical problem after 14 laps and partner Sebastien Bourdais managed only six laps.
The season begins at the Australian Grand Prix on March 29.
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