Raikkonen leads Di Resta on first day of Jerez test
2012 F1 season
Kimi Raikkonen was quickest on his return to F1
Kimi Raikkonen got his F1 comeback off to a positive start as he set the quickest time in testing at Jerez.
Raikkonen ran a series of rapid laps in the morning culminating in a 1’19.670 which put the Lotus E20 at the top of the times.
Paul di Resta came closed to deposing him with a best effort just a tenth of a second slower in the new Force India.
As always, the headlines times should not be taken as a simple reflection of who’s quickest and who’s slowest. For example, HRT (running last year’s car) were only 5% slower than the fastest time, well below the 7-8% range typically seen in last year’s races.
With nine new cars in action on the first day of the test some teams had comparatively quiet days.
Mark Webber got the year off to a slow start for defending champions Red Bull. He was unable to run during the first few hours of the session as fog at the track delayed the arrival of parts for the new RB8.
Heikki Kovalainen logged 28 laps in the new Caterham CT01 but his day’s running came to an end when the car’s starter developed a fault.
Another driver whose test ended early was Daniel Ricciardo. A drop in oil pressure on his Toro Rosso STR7 caused him to pull over with just over half hour remaining, causing the first red flag of the day.
“We had a very productive morning, doing over 40 laps and we made good progress with our programme,” said Ricciardo.
“Then in the afternoon, we did a couple of longer runs, but had to cut it short, although we only lost an hour. I was using the medium tyre on that last run, having used hard tyres for the rest of the day.”
Meanwhile Kamui Kobayashi, who had shaken down the Sauber C31 yesterday, did over 100 laps in the new car today. But he hit trouble with less than half an hour left in the session, bringing the red flags out a second time.
A brief restart gave Pedro de la Rosa time to post the final improvement of the day in last year’s HRT, before the chequered flag brought the first official test day of 2012 to an end.
Jerez test times
| Driver | Car | Best time | Laps | Difference | |
| 1 | Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus-Renault E20 | 1’19.670 | 75 | |
| 2 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes VJM05 | 1’19.772 | 101 | 0.102 |
| 3 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes W02 | 1’20.219 | 56 | 0.549 |
| 4 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault RB8 | 1’20.496 | 53 | 0.826 |
| 5 | Daniel Ricciardo | Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR7 | 1’20.694 | 57 | 1.024 |
| 6 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes W02 | 1’20.794 | 42 | 1.124 |
| 7 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari C31 | 1’21.353 | 105 | 1.683 |
| 8 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes MP4-27 | 1’21.530 | 62 | 1.860 |
| 9 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari F2012 | 1’22.815 | 69 | 3.145 |
| 10 | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham-Renault CT01 | 1’23.178 | 28 | 3.508 |
| 11 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Renault FW34 | 1’23.371 | 25 | 3.701 |
| 12 | Pedro de la Rosa | HRT-Cosworth F111 | 1’23.676 | 44 | 4.006 |
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Image © Force India F1 Team
MylesW (@mpw1985) said on 7th February 2012, 16:10
This is definitive proof! Kimi will win the WDC this year!
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) said on 7th February 2012, 16:13
@mpw1985 I can’t tell if you’re being serious or not…
egsgeg said on 7th February 2012, 16:14
Obviously he is serious. Who would doubt these times?
kenneth Ntulume said on 7th February 2012, 16:15
He is serious
MylesW (@mpw1985) said on 7th February 2012, 16:21
@Keith Collantine
I’m just kidding. Playing the role of over-enthusiastic fan jumping to conclusions. Also being a bit of a troll, so I apologize for that
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) said on 7th February 2012, 16:32
@mpw1985 The problem is people won’t necessarily get it (as you can already see).
Ohm said on 7th February 2012, 18:20
I thought both egsgeg and kenneth were being sarcastic :P
egsgeg said on 7th February 2012, 18:48
I was….
thespuditron (@spud) said on 7th February 2012, 19:40
You needed to put a smiley face on there. Like this one>>> ;-) . Then they’d know you weren’t being serious. :P
Dom said on 7th February 2012, 22:11
I find it really amusing and ironic that ppl are being so serious about being sarcastic ;-)
Mike (@mike) said on 8th February 2012, 5:45
Hey! Sarcasm is serious business ;-)
Derek said on 7th February 2012, 16:14
Steady! It’s only day one of testing.
sesku (@sesku) said on 7th February 2012, 16:17
It only first day of testing.
sato113 (@sato113) said on 7th February 2012, 16:20
I agree! I already bet £5000 on it! the times are proof alone!
MylesW (@mpw1985) said on 7th February 2012, 16:32
^ this guy gets it
sato113 (@sato113) said on 7th February 2012, 17:18
thanks. hehe
JerseyF1 said on 7th February 2012, 16:47
Did you do that when Brawn turned up to their first testing session in 2009?
matt90 (@matt90) said on 7th February 2012, 16:56
I was going to put £10 on Button after the first test. The odds stayed at 100/1 until mid way into the 1st test- I massively regret not getting off my ****.
Adrian J said on 8th February 2012, 8:08
Me too…very, very annoyed…not so much as my then gf when I told her!!
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65) said on 7th February 2012, 20:17
Kimi’s just going to smash all the records, in the same way Barrichello would’ve done it last year if testing meant anything at all…
Solo (@solo) said on 7th February 2012, 20:58
But Williams did smash the records. Only not the ones they where hoping.
one eye man said on 7th February 2012, 21:40
@keithcollantine
seeing as we are all f1 fanatics and therefore of course know that times set in testing mean sweet FA, perhaps it would be good if you could break from the normal journalist angle of who set the fastest time and lead with an angle that does actually mean something
perhaps todays angle could have been the incredible out-of-the-box reliability had by all with just the 2 red flags
that would maybe negate all of the above
Matt said on 7th February 2012, 21:33
At least we have some entertainment form someone. Pointless mentioning sandbaging Red Bull, actually looking at their times you can start droving some conclusions. They are very consistent on that over last 3 years…
gujo said on 7th February 2012, 21:50
Just like Sauber and Renault and Ferrari did 2011.
Jose said on 8th February 2012, 14:42
Testing doesn’t prove anything special although you have circling around test track for 100 laps and beyond. The most important is consistency, reliability and determination.
SPIDERman (@spiderman) said on 7th February 2012, 16:14
i have put 100 pounds bet on kimi to win WDC the moment i saw the result launching video.i hope not to be disapointed
matt90 (@matt90) said on 7th February 2012, 16:21
result launching video?
cx9 said on 7th February 2012, 19:07
Good luck
GeeMac (@geemac) said on 8th February 2012, 5:21
@spiderman What are the odds at the moment by the way?
TheBrav3 said on 8th February 2012, 6:07
You took one look at a 60% year old car and put £100 down? I hope your day job is not bank manager. :P
Colossal Squid (@colossal-squid) said on 7th February 2012, 16:16
It will be interesting to hear as testing goes on who’s feeling confident and who is not. Will any team have a woeful pre season like McLaren did last year?
John H (@john-h) said on 7th February 2012, 17:08
McLaren perhaps!
LexBlair (@lexblair) said on 7th February 2012, 17:29
actually they had pretty consistent runs!….even though they hadn´t done too many laps, hence i could imagine, that tomorrow is gonna be all about mileage….
BBT (@bbt) said on 7th February 2012, 17:59
They never do high mileage, normally Ferrari the most and Mclaren the least.
RBR don’t seem to run lots of laps either if I remember correctly.
I’m sure there was an article on here about it, irrespective of Mclarens problems in testing last year they tend not to run 100s of laps, the ran very few in 2010 as well.
HUHHII (@huhhii) said on 7th February 2012, 16:18
Couldn’t be more happier. :)
Carrick Stonehouse (@cstonehouse) said on 7th February 2012, 16:22
Right, I know it’s the first day of pre-season testing and everything. but HRT have improved, saying that they used the F111 which may have used the blowing diffuser. Lotus and FI are looking very strong ahead of next season. Williams, second bottom :/
matt90 (@matt90) said on 7th February 2012, 16:28
I doubt either Mercedes or HRT ran with the exhaust blowing the diffuser off throttle. Would be a bit of a waste of time when they could be analysing the effects of running closer to 2012 spec.
the-muffin-man said on 7th February 2012, 16:59
The only blowing of the diffuser HRT did last season was with the hair dryers they use to cool the brakes!!
Dom said on 7th February 2012, 22:15
COTD surely ;-)
Carrick Stonehouse (@cstonehouse) said on 7th February 2012, 22:15
They used one in Canada, whether it was fitted beyond then is another matter.
McLarenFanJamm (@mclarenfanjamm) said on 7th February 2012, 16:59
@cstonehouse HRT are using the exact car they finished the season with, it hasn’t magically improved.
Remember that it is only testing and each team is running different programs to evaluate setups, tyres, new parts etc. The times, from a fans point of view at least, really mean very little. For example, do you think that the Force India is really faster than last season’s Mercedes? Given that we’ve lost the blown diffuser and, therefore, an awful lot of downforce.
Wayne said on 7th February 2012, 17:53
Seeing as the F111 already has a very low nose could it meet the 2012 regulations as it is?
If so I cannot see HRT coming up with a major re-design for the F112…
BBT (@bbt) said on 7th February 2012, 18:02
Not really, Williams topped the Jerez test last year and look at their 2011 season.
Steve said on 7th February 2012, 20:27
I do believe that’s Coventry transport Museum in your avatar there!
Slr (@slr) said on 7th February 2012, 16:22
Hopefully Raikkonen didn’t go fastest because of a glory run, but time will tell.
TheBrav3 said on 8th February 2012, 6:22
my name isn’t time but i can tell you they did. It’s not kimis fault. The team is looking for a new owner and once the season starts proper unless they are at least on the podium favourable news headlines will dry up along with multi hundred million dollar contracts. make hay as the something something as the saying goes :P
topdowntoedown (@topdowntoedown) said on 7th February 2012, 16:24
Interesting that the starter motor caused the Caterham to stop. That’s a new part this year isn’t it – previously they haven’t had a starter on the cars and have used external starter motors.
Carrick Stonehouse (@cstonehouse) said on 7th February 2012, 16:25
I believe it was the starter shaft, i.e. the thing they plug the external starter into
JerseyF1 said on 7th February 2012, 16:43
I think you’re thinking of the 2014 engine regulations when they will effectively need a ‘starter’ although this will be done by the ERS system.
I assume the current rules don’t allow KERS to restart a stalled engine?
bplowry said on 8th February 2012, 4:26
As far as I’m aware there’s no rule saying they can’t start using their own power, but to save weight they all choose not to.
John H (@john-h) said on 7th February 2012, 19:42
Isn’t it ironic?
F1_Dave said on 7th February 2012, 16:25
Anyone else notice how the nose on the Lotus is completely different to the one they launched the car with?
Its lower & narrower with thinner support struts. Doesn’t look as good as the launch nose.
Also the gold has become beige again :(
Dan said on 7th February 2012, 17:06
The launch car was the R31 chassis with updated nose. It was a bogus car.
This is the actual E20 chassis
jonchuckle (@jonchuckle) said on 7th February 2012, 23:12
It’s not beige, it’s JPS Lotus gold! Looks far better and more like the Lotuses of the 70s/80s than that shade of dull, brown-y gold they had on the car at launch. That looked more like a Wolf.
Catalina ;) said on 7th February 2012, 16:25
There are some videos, like this one
Catalina ;) said on 7th February 2012, 16:29
http://youtu.be/CiNam8Prluo
Calum (@calum) said on 7th February 2012, 16:35
F1 is back!!! :D Glad there is no horrible EBD noise this year.
OmarR-Pepper (@omarr-pepper) said on 8th February 2012, 14:35
no horrible noise… lot of horrible noses
nemo87 (@nemo87) said on 7th February 2012, 16:37
awesome find. thanks :)
Tom (@) said on 7th February 2012, 16:44
Nice! The noise is great, thanks for that!
cx9 said on 7th February 2012, 19:11
Musicccc
McLarenFanJamm (@mclarenfanjamm) said on 7th February 2012, 19:46
That sounds a million times better than last year. Especially the Renault/Lotus, that was absolutely awful.
Ollie (@olz21) said on 7th February 2012, 19:27
Some other videos here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLBlWl2zRrc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlKlKzEG_TI
Cars sound a lot better without the EBD’s.
Calum (@calum) said on 7th February 2012, 16:32
I’m not surprised Kimi was first, in fact I was almost expecting it – too good an oppurtunity for publicity! Their car livery is stunning, almost makes up for their step nose.
Cyclops_PL (@cyclops_pl) said on 7th February 2012, 16:40
Almost.
LexBlair (@lexblair) said on 7th February 2012, 17:33
THIS!!! it was a pretty good PR stunt…. but i am sure that tomorrows timesheet is gonna look quite different than today´s…
BBT (@bbt) said on 7th February 2012, 18:03
Totally agree, all PR
Dev said on 7th February 2012, 16:36
fact is HRT will benefit most for banning blown diffuser!! hence they will be a lot closer to teams ahead than in previous seasons.
Catalina (@catalina) said on 7th February 2012, 16:40
F2012 difusser: http://bit.ly/AaFtWh
sato113 (@sato113) said on 7th February 2012, 17:22
is that a camera on the right hand side of the rear wing?
F1_Dave said on 7th February 2012, 17:31
Temperature sensor to monitor the temps of the rear bodywork by the exhaust exits.
Lee1 said on 7th February 2012, 17:55
I don’t understand why Ferrari are running with exhausts like that when they will surely have to change them significantly before the season starts.
McLarenFanJamm (@mclarenfanjamm) said on 7th February 2012, 19:50
Especially when they’re burning the bodywork and they’re having to do this > http://twitpic.com/8gylqs
Pamphlet (@pamphlet) said on 7th February 2012, 16:43
Autosport: “It will be remembered as the day Raikkonen said “remember me?” by beating last year’s best Jerez testing time before the day had barely begun – and then stayed on top till the finish.”
Fixy (@fixy) said on 7th February 2012, 16:45
It’s a good sign that Ferrari are so down the list! They were fastest in 2010 and sometimes in 2011, and they were the third fastest during the season!
Klaas (@klaas) said on 7th February 2012, 16:54
So how is that a good sign?
matt88 (@matt88) said on 7th February 2012, 17:18
just being superstitious… :)
Colossal Squid (@colossal-squid) said on 7th February 2012, 18:10
I’ve lost a lot of faith in judging how competitive ferrari are since the last two winter tests…they were favourites for the title after 2010 and were supposed to be neck and neck for pace with the Red Bulls after last years tests!
All I hope for is that it doesn’t become apparent that Ferrari have a dog of a car!
bearforce1 said on 7th February 2012, 17:16
I am a little confused. I appreciate the testing today doesn’t really help us with how quick the cars are relative to each other.
Isn’t KR performance today pretty cool considering he has been away for so long? Just asking?
Lee1 said on 7th February 2012, 17:59
Not really any sign at all. Most of the teams try to run at specific speeds for particular fuel loads in order to verify simulator results and to get constant good measurements. The lower teams or teams that need sponsorship tend to throw in fast laps which are not particularly useful at this stage of testing.
Solo (@solo) said on 8th February 2012, 0:37
That’s not even the reason Kimi is so high. The reason is simple. The guy was missing from F1 for a while so he wanted to push a little to get a feeling so he did a slightly faster lap than most. Other drivers don’t really push their cars in testing because no one wants to show anything to the other about the real pace of the car.
Especially the first day they don’t even push for a few corners so Kimi pushing even a little just to get a feeling got on top easily.