Michael Schumacher was absent from the Ferrari F2007 today as Felipe Massa and Luca Badoer took over the testing duties at Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona. Perhaps it was this that lead to Ferrari having their dominance broken, Renault driver Heikki Kovalainen topping the timing sheets on the third and final day of the test. Felipe Massa came in second and almost 0.5s adrift of the Renault and 0.3s clear of Franck Montagny, who drove the Toyota for the last time today. Ferrari test driver Badoer lapped the circuit in 1m21.741s and was placed sixth at the end of the proceedings, having been beaten by an impressive lap from Sebastian Vettel in the Toro Rosso and David Coulthard in the Red Bull.
McLaren were out in force with testers Pedro De La Rosa and Gary Paffett, despite the team attending the FIA hearing in London. The verdict of which is due tomorrow, and I’m sure the headlines haven’t been missed by anyone throughout the day. The words have been said and despite McLaren insisting they aren’t looking for the drivers title, their lawyers appeared to have missed the memo. And of course, Ferrari have retaliated with warnings about the damage this may cause to Formula One. Honestly, I think the damage has already been done, but a change in winner certainly wouldn’t help.
But back to the test, De La Rosa led the Mercedes powered team with a seventh fastest time, while Paffett ended the day down in tenth. Champ Car retiree and F1-newbie Sebastien Bourdais impressed in the second Rosso going ninth for the squad just behind Williams charger Nico Rosberg. Both BMW drivers were working hard again as was second Williams driver Kazuki Nakajima.
Christian Klien took to the Force India car for the second time in his bid to secure the drive for next year, as did Rosso-refugee Vitantonio Liuzzi. Klien went fastest of the two in fifteenth and Liuzzi managed seventeenth, sandwiching Jenson Button in the Honda. Mike Conway took to the second Honda while James Rossiter returned to Super Aguri to run the RA107. The Red Bull of Robert Doornbos propped up the timing sheet.
| 1. | Heikki Kovalainen | Renault | 1m20.659s |
| 2. | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1m21.044s |
| 3. | Franck Montagny | Toyota | 1m21.363s |
| 4. | Sebastian Vettel | Scuderia Toro Rosso | 1m21.486s |
| 5. | David Coulthard | Red Bull Racing | 1m21.555s |
| 6. | Luca Badoer | Ferrari | 1m21.741s |
| 7. | Pedro De La Rosa | McLaren | 1m21.805s |
| 8. | Nico Rosberg | Williams | 1m21.820s |
| 9. | Sebastien Bourdais | Scuderia Toro Rosso | 1m21.939s |
| 10. | Gary Paffett | McLaren | 1m22.070s |
| 11. | Nick Heidfeld | BMW | 1m22.460s |
| 12. | Robert Kubica | BMW | 1m22.706s |
| 13. | Kazuki Nakajima | Williams | 1m23.039s |
| 14. | Jarno Trulli | Toyota | 1m23.064s |
| 15. | Christian Klien | Force India | 1m23.084s |
| 16. | Jenson Button | Honda | 1m23.118s |
| 17. | Vitantonio Liuzzi | Force India | 1m23.206s |
| 18. | Mike Conway | Honda | 1m23.729s |
| 19. | James Rossiter | Super Aguri | 1m23.931s |
| 20. | Robert Doornbos | Red Bul Racing | 1m24.102s |
November 15th, 2007 at 7:44pm
kovalainen’s time was deleted when it was found that he skipped the last chicane, so massa’s first
November 15th, 2007 at 9:07pm
Yep, as reported on Autosport. I’m not changing the title now, but Kovalainen finished second, and Ferrari’s dominance continued.
November 16th, 2007 at 11:51am
It’s nice to see the Force Indias mixed in with the Hondas.
November 16th, 2007 at 11:52am
Hey! That comment went through without going to moderation. I don’t know what you’ve done to the system, Ollie, but I think you’ve fixed the problem
November 16th, 2007 at 1:28pm
I may or may not have checked a box when I moved the site over to a new server. This may, or may not, have caused every single comment to go straight to moderation. But now, as it stands, a commenter must have a previously approved comment before it automatically shows, hence why WordPress likes you now, Alianora.
Thanks to everyone for your patience.
Yep, thought you might enjoy the Force India’s getting in the mix. I’m a little surprised that Klien is (on the face of it) performing better than Liuzzi, despite Liuzzi getting in more miles this year in the car and Klien forced to do limited testing.
November 17th, 2007 at 4:08pm
Thank you for the explanation of the comment behaviour, Ollie.
There’s not a huge amount in the gap between Liuzzi and Klien (0.22s), so maybe they were using different settings. Simply because the test is primarily a driver evaluation for Force India doesn’t stop it from using it for other purposes as well.
The other striking result is that of STR. If they carry on like that, everyone from BMW down the pecking order should be scared…