Just as expected, the rain and bad weather have appeared today in the Montmelo circuit. Session began with a slightly rain, but the track was still dry. The drivers could not use it thanks to an off-track by Felipe Massa, which has caused a red flag after 10 minutes, and this pause period has been enough for the rain to wet the Catalan track. Things have improved to the point that the drivers were able to use dry tires, and rain has respected them until the lunch break. The worst part was yet to come, when after the lunch break not only rained again, but the water was accompanied by hail. Hail luckily stopped after a while, but not the rain that accompanied to the end of the session.
These are the times achieved during the period when the track was drier (not thereby on ideal conditions) which have been recorded as the fastest on the timesheets. Thus, Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes have done the best time of the day (1:23.282), with McLaren’s Button and Toro Rosso’s Vergne near – less than a second. It was the time when the track was getting better for moments and not all teams were able to use it in the same way, so we could say that today’s final times are not very conclusive.
We could say that today the teams have rolled more than expected, as it was the first time during this preseason that the teams had the opportunity to test in wet conditions. So, in the afternoon the work has focused on making relatively long runs, and we proved that all drivers who have done them (Button, Gutierrez, Bianchi, Van der Garde and Chilton) had a steady and quite similar pace. Others like Hamilton and Webber have preferred to shorter runs of two, three or four laps, looking for the fastest lap. The best times under the rain have been for Webber (1:40.325), Hamilton (1:40.666), Massa (1:40.739) and Button (1:40.839), although it must be said that they have not shared the same state of the track.
No team has reached the 100 laps today, but Gutierrez has been close, with 96. Massa (80), Vergne (80), Button (70), Webber (64) and Bianchi (61) are the other drivers who have been active on this day of changing conditions. Moreover, neither Williams drivers, not in the morning or afternoon, has set time, both have been focused on doing pit-stops and going through the pit-lane.
It will be on February 28 when we will hear the engines of Formula 1 again, at the Circuit of Catalunya, in the last four days of pre-season tests before the first race in Australia. No doubt we will keep you informed, in Formula Ràpida and Quick Formula!