Practice 1 in Bahrain, Adrian Sutil and Force India top the times

The first practice is now over and we have our first taste of F1 for 2010 and it is Force India with Adrian Sutil that take the top spot with Alonso and Ferrari second. Fourth spot also went to Ferrari to reinforce the general view that their car is fast.

Other stars were Kubica to haul the Renault up to third spot when it hasn’t looked that fast throughout testing. Jenson Button managed to get in front of Hamilton in the first session in their battle, it doesn’t mean that much but every little victory will help. Rosberg also finished ahead of Schumacher who was unhappy with the car setup throughout the session, how many times in the past have we seen Schumacher struggle all weekend to then take the Victory on Sunday though?
Liuzzi finished seventh to show that the Force India does indeed have pace but the Saubers somewhat disappointingly [...]

Rosberg and Mercedes take the top spot on the third day in Barcelona

Nico Rosberg took the top place in the times with Mercedes today at the penultimate day of pre-season testing. With most of the teams running race simulations to see how the cars perform over that distance Toro Rosso and McLaren with Jenson Button jumped back to the top.
Rain again frustrated the teams as they didn’t get a fully dry track for most of the day but it didn’t stop them racking up the miles. Virgin were the only team not to complete many, their luck really doesn’t seem to be with them as mechanical problems still seem to be holding them back.
It is surprising to see Sauber down in 10th place, this must be the first time that they’ve been that low down in all the tests this year. But then Red Bull are also down there and we know that the car is fast. Perhaps it’s the conditions that [...]

Day one at Jerez, Red Bull are back on form – at last

The second Jerez got underway today at a damp track, the teams are frustrated at having to stick to the wet venue as their request to move the test somewhere warmer fell through. It seems some of the teams were more annoyed than others voicing the frustration though less official channels such as twitter feeds.
On track we saw the Red Bull finally regain the form of last season by topping the times ahead of the McLaren piloted by Lewis Hamilton. The times aren’t as quick as last week yet so the other teams could yet overtake them.
Toro Rosso and BMW Sauber put in another good show to confirm that their pace is good and they put their cars ahead of Michael Schumacher Mercedes. Ferrari took the third spot as they concentrate on setup work.
Williams didn’t have such a good day ending up bottom of the established teams and having some [...]

Four day summary of times from first test in Jerez, Hamilton scores top spot with Alguersuari second

Lewis Hamilton’s time on the last day of the Jerez test was the fastest of the four days and sets McLaren at the top of the timesheets, but Jaime Alguersuari’s Friday time netted Toro Rosso the second spot. Taking the best times from all four days makes for a much better comparison of the times than the day by day listings, the full listings are below.
As far as the teams go McLaren take the top spot but it’s teams that are associated with the middle pack that take the next set of places leaving Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari out in the cold. Marks must go the Toro Rosso and Sauber for keeping up those times and topping a day each too.
1. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, 1:19.583
2. Jaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso, 1:19.919
3. Kamui Kobayashi, BMW Sauber, 1:19.950
4. Adrian Sutil, Force India, 1:20.180
5. Rubens Barrichello, Williams, 1:20.341
6. Robert Kubica, Renault, 1:20.358, 86 [...]