Schumacher puts Mercedes on top in Jerez

2011 F1 testing

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Michael Schumacher, Mercedes, Jerez, 2011

Michael Schumacher led the way in the second day of testing in Jerez.

The Mercedes driver was a few hundredths of a second faster than Ferrari’s Felipe Massa at the end of the session.

Massa was the busiest driver of the test, racking up over 100 laps for the second day in a row.

Jenson Button drove the McLaren MP4-26 for the first time and ended up third-quickest, six-tenths of a second off Schumacher.

A series of red flags interrupted today’s running, the first coming when Jaime Alguersuari’s Toro Rosso stopped on the track early on in the day.

A few other drivers had off-track moments which caused the session to be stopped, including Vitaly Petrov, Sergio Perez and Pastor Maldonado.

The latter crashed his Williams at turn four, damaging the front and rear wings and rear suspension. He had also lost time while the team fixed a fault on the Kinetic Energy Recovery System.

Jarno Trulli also lost time with a mechanical problem which ended his running halfway through the day. The team are flying in spare parts from the factory overnight in time for Heikki Kovalainen’s session tomorrow.

DriverCarBest timeLapsDifference
1Michael SchumacherMercedes W021’20.352112
2Felipe MassaFerrari F150th Italia1’20.4131160.061
3Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes MP4-261’21.009690.657
4Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari STR61’21.214720.862
5Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault RB71’21.6131121.261
6Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes VJM041’21.780731.428
7Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari C301’21.857561.505
8Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth MVR-021’22.208571.856
9Vitaly PetrovRenault R311’22.493642.141
10Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Cosworth FW331’22.591372.239
11Jarno TrulliLotus-Renault T1281’23.216402.864

2011 F1 testing

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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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    61 comments on “Schumacher puts Mercedes on top in Jerez”

    1. That’s a piece of news for Mercedes.

    2. It just goes to show that you can’t take much from testing times at all. Yesterday all the news was fretting taht mercedes had problems and today they set the fastest time!

      I like the way people read too much into things and come up with all sorts of wild theories

    3. Dear god Petrov! Get it together man! I feel that without Kubica’s proper input, Renault are gonna strugle to develop their car to its full potential. Anyone else notice he is the only Non rookie to go off? And somehow he is slower then the Torro Rosso AND the VIRGIN! Of course Renault may be testing new parts, but I definetly wouldn’t expect him that low…

      1. Spinning in testing is not much of an issue, as the car will soon be back in the pits and if there is no damage, out on the track again. Also, times mean nothing at this stage. You’re overreacting.

        1. the joys of the driver with more money, cant help but think that senna would do a better job this season than Petrov is going too.

          1. Yes I agree with you… Go Vitaly I know you can do it!!!

          2. Not spinning & being slow won’t be a better job than being fast & having spins (which he will learn from)

            I’d rather know my driver was capable of being quick & just needed to calm down rather than he was slow & steady & someone else could outpace him after 1 run in the car (like at HRT last year anyone??)

            So by that logic Petrov > Senna Jnr

      2. I suppose Petrov was slower because of the runs they were doing. Quite a lot of times in the 1:35s, completely different program.

        And that off certainly hampered getting better times done, is the pressure already getting to him?

    4. Damn the Virgin result is even more impressive than Merc’s.

    5. I’m impressed by Glock’s lap time, but too much can’t be read into these… last day timings will matter more.

    6. Rob Smedley: Felipe, Michael… is ….faster than you

      1. vote for comment of the day ;-)

        Could also just be that the two fastest times were set by the two teams who have managed to get the most track time. They are clearly further along in understanding how the overall packages can be tweaked. Let’s see how the other teams respond once they have similar mileage.

        1. I suppose that is by courtesty of both teams already having had the time to get their systems sorted out and now able to use the ASR and KERS in laps to get a time on the board.

          Most others running competative drivers in the test were not using these things yet.

    7. Will love to see how Lewis commands these tyres in relation to Jenson. Ditto for Felipe in relation to Fernando. This is going to be a great year than the previous years championship

      1. I agree. The aero development that Newey was so far ahead with in ’09 is starting to plateau, and KERS, DRS, and Pirellis are new from last year for everyone. All of those things should level the field a bit and make for an even tighter championship battle. Hopefully we’ll see more teams than ever making it on the podium this year. Unpredictable racing is what it’s all about!

    8. go to another forum if ur gonna be stupid. this site is great because of intelligent comments, not this.

    9. Its said he had that time on Pirelli´s super soft slicks during something like a 10-lap run. At least that is what Mark Webber is thinking. At the end of that run he was like 4-5 seconds slower. Those Pirelli´s die quick. But Jerez is one of the most tire consuming tracks around. Still, i think we can expect a lot of changes during races.

      1. Schumi confirmed he had the Supersofts on, still not a glory run, as he had fuel for those 10 laps in the car, if not more.

    10. IT IS TESTING

      Means…nothing

      1. Why bother to comment then if it is JUST testing?

        GO SCHUMI GO.

      2. Exactly – when seeing these comments I always get Stereophonics – It means nothing stuck in my head. :D

    11. Nice low fuel, fresh tyre 1lap run to boost mickey’s confidence.

      1. I though the same thing but it wasn’t actually a short stint, and was actually the second lap of a 10 lap stint!

        Given the rapid drop off in lap times of ~.5s per lap it was probably on supersofts, but it might indicate some potential at Mercedes.


        (from )
        23 ----
        24 1:25.576
        25 1:20.352 -5.224
        26 1:21.360 +1.008
        27 1:22.099 +0.739
        28 1:22.662 +0.563
        29 1:22.987 +0.325
        30 1:23.836 +0.849
        31 1:24.234 +0.398
        32 1:24.237 +0.003
        33 1:24.121 -0.116
        34 1:24.662 +0.541
        35 ----

        1. Where did you get these laptimes?
          Did you follow Williams live streaming?

        2. Here is the stint that Massa did:

          33 1:20.413
          34 1:35.494 +15.081
          35 1:21.318 -14.176
          36 1:21.847 +0.529
          37 1:21.927 +0.08
          38 1:22.095 +0.168
          39 1:22.406 +0.311
          40 1:22.835 +0.429

          Massa’s drop off in lap times is much smaller. He ends up being 2 seconds a lap faster

        3. That’s truly incredible drop off. I think tyre strategy is somewhat clear for this season. Regardless of where you are, start on the harder tyre, second stint on the harder tyre and save the soft tyres for a 10 lap dash at the end when the circuit is most rubbered in.

      2. Mickey has PLENTY of confidence,and success will come from the Races.Watch this space,remember this comment..

        GO SCHUMI>>>>

        1. Nice to see your confidence about Schu’s prospects this year. Would be good to have another guy in the mix again.

        2. They had confidence going into 2010 as well …

          1. Nah that was just PR at Schumi returning, this year it looks like a bit less bluster & a bit more substance from Mercedes.

    12. Am I right to say that this is the first time since his comeback that he is on top, regardless if it was testing or free practice in a GP weekend?

      1. No, I remember he was on top in one race FP, can’t remember what race or what FP it was but I definitely remember him being top

        1. I thought I remembered him being fastest in a practice session early in the season as well, but we were both mistaken. I just went back through all the race weekend recaps: https://www.racefans.net/f1-2010-season/ and Schumacher was never ultimately on top of the time sheets in any FP session. He may have shown promise in a session and temporarily been fastest, but never finished a session fastest…

    13. I bet Maldonado’s not looking like such hot property to Williams right now.

      Also, can I vote to make logging in required for posting comments as well?

      1. Good idea, I think sometimes people use others names to troll on the site, being required to log in would solve the problem

      2. Good one! Agreed here.
        Kubica’s accident has shown this site to some – maybe just one – real trolls…

      3. If everyone had to log in, this site would lose many good commenters who simply can’t be bothered to go through the trouble of logging in. I think its fine as it is now. If someone is trolling, just ignore them and only read good comments.

        1. I agree. Keith keeps them in check, so no need to go to a register to post policy.

          There have been about 2 or 3 trolls here lately, although one is very persistently disagreeing with alomost all I write. Then again, I would bet this one to be so persistent to get himself registered anyhow.

          1. @BasCB, I disagree with your comment! ;-)

            Seriously though, you are correct. If there are flaming trolls trying to push everyone’s buttons, just ignore them.

    14. HounslowBusGarage
      11th February 2011, 17:12

      Did they test at Jerez last year?
      If so I’d be really interested to compare last year’s times to this year’s. I was goig to go into the archives of the F1Fanatic site to see if I could find the relevant article, but I don’t think the archives were carried over to the new version of the site. Were they?

        1. HounslowBusGarage
          11th February 2011, 17:25

          Many thanks!

      1. https://www.racefans.net/2011/02/11/2011-f1-testing-day-5-jerez/

        Keiths got last years jerez times. I think this highlights how much teams sandbagged last year and is just further evidence that you really cant read into times in testing, no matter how tempting it is.

        1. HounslowBusGarage
          11th February 2011, 17:31

          Many thanks.
          Yes, I know it’s ony testing, but I was interested in comparing the overall speed of 2011 cars with 2010. In general, are they faster or slower? And it looks as though they are maybe 1 to 1.5 seconds slower, depending on track conditions.

          1. More interesting are the times sequences from several laps of running, they give at least a clue on what teams are doing.

      2. Now that you mention it I can’t seem to find them either. Was good reading too…

      3. For now they seem barely slower than last years time. The difference is a lot less than expected.

        Of course this is just testing though.

    15. Well seeing as schumi set the fastest lap “time” and did the joint 2nd most laps, I gather Mercedes have finally sorted out their hydraulics problem which was plaguing them before.

      1. “A Good All Rounder” — not forgetting Ross Brawn and Norbert Haug.

        Thankyou ROSS ;)

    16. can’t read too much into this, cause we need to know which of those lap times were by using KERS, light car & adjustable rear wing.

      if any of the team has posted that time w/o using KERS & ARW then it can go quicker by at least half a second.

    17. Is JB using the same chassis as Lewis or he’s already got his own? Do you have any input on that?

      1. I’d be very surprised if they’ve got two chassis here.

        1. So today was not a shakedown. Which means he could use the whole potential of the car.

      2. Why would they ship 2 cars over?

      3. I don’t think any of the teams have two complete cars built this early in the season. They’ll probably all bring one car each until the final test in Bahrain where they may have two…

    18. Isso não é justo André! He he he…

    19. I can’t help but love reading this. Despite the booming voice of reality telling me it’s just testing.

    20. Just cannot wait to see Daniel Ricciardo get his big race day. He’s the driver of the future

    21. Sato113………..what in the hell r u on about ?

    22. Looking at the lap time I am just predicting that Mercedes are on the right track this season but they need to keep on developing their car & make sure they carry the momentum.

    23. ferrari has been the fastest in 2 out of the 5 testing sessions, the worst they have been is 5th when massa had a spin becasue of oil leaking. So to me the ferrari is looking very good. i followed the times and he did the fastest median laps in all the runs he did compared to the red bull,mercedez and the mcclaren .so just keep denying reality. Also alonso if usually .6 tenths faster than massa.

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