Alonso fastest in second day of Valencia test

2011 F1 testing

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Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, Valencia, 2011

Fernando Alonso put the Ferrari F150 on top of the times in the second day of testing in front of thousands of his fans in Valencia.

Team mate Felipe Massa takes over the car tomorrow.

Sebastian Vettel was second fastest ahead of Paul di Resta.

The Force India driver completed the most laps – 111 – and brought the red flags out early on after spinning at turn two.

Another early interruption came after Rubens Barrichello experienced an electrical failure on his Williams.

Jaime Alguersuari had a spin in his Toro Rosso but was able to return to the track and later handed his car over to Sebastian Buemi.

Barrichello also shared driving duties with Pastor Maldonado.

Red Bull divided the running between their two drivers as well but Mark Webber only made it out onto the track 40 minutes before the session ended.

His running was interrupted by Buemi, whose Toro Rosso came to a halt just after the pit lane entrance with quarter of an hour left to run. The session restarted with eight minutes left.

Power steering problems in the new Lotus T128 limited Heikki Kovalainen to just 15 laps. Mike Gascoyne said the team are flying the part back to Britain overnight for repairs.

DriverCarBest timeLapsDifference
1Fernando AlonsoFerrari F1501’13.307108
2Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault RB71’13.614430.307
3Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes VJM031’13.8441110.537
4Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes MP4-251’14.353831.046
5Robert KubicaRenault R311’14.4121041.105
6Narain KarthikeyanHRT-Cosworth F1101’14.472*801.165
7Nico RosbergMercedes W021’14.645691.338
8Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth VR-011’15.408342.101
9Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth FW331’16.023502.716
10Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari C301’16.198422.891
11Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Cosworth FW331’16.266292.959
12Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari STR61’16.359463.052
13Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari STR61’16.474643.167
14Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault RB71’17.365174.058
15Heikki KovalainenLotus-Renault T1281’20.649157.342

*It is believed the timing system reported Karthikeyan’s best time incorrectly. HRT have not issued a best time of the day for Karthikeyan.

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    50 comments on “Alonso fastest in second day of Valencia test”

    1. Looks like there is something wrong with the lap time table.

      1. McLaren Fan 17
        2nd February 2011, 16:19

        I have a problem too – there’s no gaps between anything.

      2. Narain KarthikeyanHRT-Cosworth F1101’14.472801.1657 ???

        Is that true??? :)

        1. There has gotta be a mistake in that time recorded. Thats the only logical explanation I could think of.

          1. Apparently Karthikeyan cut a chicane on his fast lap, and his time has been thrown out? This was posted in another forum, but with no confirming link.

          2. Jarred Walmsley
            2nd February 2011, 18:57

            What about all the 2011 spec cars are slower than the 2010 cars which also explains why the Force India is so high?

            1. Just check out the lap times from last year’s test on the exact same circuit.

      3. Here is the time table (and live timing) that I was using the whole day:

        http://www.f1today.nl/live-update/2011/02/02/circuit-de-la-comunitat-valenciana.html

        I know it’s not english, but you really don’t need that in this case. Maybe someone will find it useful.

        1. Yer used the last link you posted, was a damn sight better using that then reading the garbage pumped out on BBC. You would develop a blood clot in your head with the amount of rubbish they pump out.

          No real f1 fan can get a word on that site because it’s full of muppets talking about EJ’s shirts, Nico’s hair cut and hyping up Paul Di Resta, calling him “The new flying scotsman” I mean honestly……It’s testing lol.

    2. wow.. narain back on track… we shld nvr under estimate ni one.. he is gud.. he is back… i guess he is burning that hrt to the limit… lap time of 1.14.472 is really appreciable with that hrt….he is in front of nico and ruben… in terms of lap time.. gud efforts..

      1. Wait wait wait. You’ll see during the season.

        1. @Fixy, thats what i was thinking

          1. I agree. After Saubers sandbagging at the pre-season testing last year I don’t trust anyone.

            1. Wasn’t Sauber running fast at last seasons testing?

      2. he cld b runnin with like 3 lps of fuel tho… nico and ruben cld b runnin heavir…

        1. lol!!

          It was the same last year concerning Alonso being at the top though. Ferrari and Red Bull appeared at the top at the start of the tests and then it seemed the other teams began to try their faster setups in later ones. Wouldn’t read anything into this yet.

          1. Wouldn’t read anything into this either, nothing at all… except Vettel ended up wining the championship, and Alonso came second. Other than that, sure, the tests didn’t give us any indication… Well, almost… because the top teams during 2010 winter tests (minus Sauber) were also the top teams during the season.

            1. To right, and don’t let anyone bamboozle you into the testing means nothing.
              It means little at this stage, but test 3 and 4 normally give a very good indication, just don’t look at the headline times. The 10+ lap stints last year predicted the exact order.

      3. Nikhil, both you and I would love to have an Indian driver to support. But dont get your hopes high on Narain, I can guarantee you he will make a fool of himself right from Bahrain to Brazil.

        1. Todfod,

          I can’t figure out what you and so many others have against Narain Karthikeyan in terms of past performance stats or evidence to suggest that he’ll “make a fool of himself.”

          I’m not making anything out of today’s times. They aren’t representative and are dependant on many variables. If Narain worn’t satisfy our expectations it will probably be because of the HRT and not because of and lack of capability. If you have any solid evidence then I’ll willingly change my mind.

          This isn’t the best Narain has done in a test session. In post-season testing in 2005, Narain topped the times in the Williams fitted with the then new 2.4 litre V8 powerplant against the 3.0 litre V10s many other teams were using.

          1. Well I’ve actually followed Narain during the 2005 season pretty closely, and his career in A1 GP after that. Sure he gets the benefit of being the 1st Indian driver ever, and once in a while he puts in good times in test sessions. But come raceday, when the tough gets going, Narain just spins around in the dirt. I guess he wasn’t in a stellar car in 2005, and he is not in an even less impressive car in 2011. And honestly, the combination of HRT (the worse team I have ever come across) & Narain (amongst the worst drivers I have ever come across), does seem to be a bit of a joke.

            But to answer your question of why I think he will make a fool of himself… let me show you something called the Narain highlight reel…

            https://www.racefans.net/forum/topic.php?id=1038

            Check out the youtube video links posted

            1. Do you think Narain Karthikeyan is the only driver who makes mistakes during practice sessions and sometimes in qualifying? Watch Suzuka qualifying in the rain, watch his first ever F1 qualifying at Albert Park.

              You’ve got to come up with something better than that to close the door on Narain.

            2. Well I guess we will just have to wait and see..

    3. Keith, It might just be my browser, but the drivers time chart is all broken.

      Nothing new today, the times are pretty much as we’d expect but obviously noones giving anything away yet. Shame for Lotus, wanted to see where it might be heading (if we can read anything in these times) but nvm

    4. Here come the endless and pointless predictions on who’s fast and who’s rubbish. Only the final testing session will show us what’s what.

      And Narain’s lap may not be a true indicator of HRT’s pace, but the guy is quick. Ragged and somewhat inconsistent, but quick. I think he can do a better job than Karun or Bruno did last year.

      1. Did you ever watch the 2005 season??? He was consistently slower than a below average teammate. I think Karun and Bruno are not spectacular, but still a whole lot better than Narain.

        1. “Consistently slower than” Monteiro? Now we know who hasn’t watched the 2005 season.

          1. You actually feel, Narain is quick guy. Now I have feeling even I can be WC in 2012. lol :)

            Anyways i dont understand why he is in F1, Karun and Narain were spotted in FI at abu dhabi doing simulator and reports said one of them was full 1 sec faster. I dont think it was Narain

    5. I wonder why Vettel only did 43 laps.

      1. Half day only

      2. He did the morning, Webber did the afternoon.

    6. I think the only thing we can read from Valencia test is some sort of picture of reliability of teams. Usually massive problems during tests equal problems during season.

      1. Sure, we can’t read much more than that from any single test. But as the data will start to accumulate, we’ll be able to tell much more. I think that even before the first race we’ll be able to recognize this year’s frontrunners and backmarkers.

        1. I think until Barcelona we should not even look at time sheets, for the sake of our sanity :)

          1. Agreed, it will become clear in test 3 and 4 like last year

          2. Younger Hamilton
            2nd February 2011, 22:54

            Me too i’ve clearly learnt from last year’s Pre Season Testing The Times doesnt matters(To Sauber it probably did last year) but anyway you never know what each team is doing at this point,we’ll know something or in fact a lot about where every team in Barcelona or Bahrain.

    7. yep – looks like this test clearly showed who is the fastest and who is the slowest – in fact no need to watch the rest of the season now when the results from testing are so perfectly accurate –

      1. Your statement would make HRT’s year

    8. ? There were 4 interruptions today, but none of them were caused by Alguersuari, but Barrichello, Di Resta, Rosberg and Buemi…

    9. Sorry about the broken table guys, fixed now.

      1. I got some chairs you can fix too

    10. but still there is no clear picture about which car is best in field . KEITH when will you publish the technical Analysis of each team?

    11. BRAWN says that Renault exhaust is not that vital can any one explain

      1. They have a better idea. More effective.

        1. Probably something like HRT. A device that removes 4 – 6 seconds from your recorded lap time.

      2. “We’re already in trouble getting what we have right now to work, leave the FEE alone”

      3. He means that he doesn’t think it will produce a big enough gain in performance to make everyone else copy it.

        1. Kinda like the Mercedes airbox last year? A very clever piece of equipment, but not worth the effort of copying?

    12. It will be touch to say anything from this test as teams & drivers will try to get to know their cars & after a long summer break with no competitive racing this will be a shakedown. The real test will start in Barcelona & Bahrain.

    Comments are closed.