Lotus quickest of 2012 cars at Jerez
2012 F1 testing
Romain Grosjean, Lotus, Jerez, 2012
Romain Grosjean set the fastest time for a 2012-specification F1 car in the Lotus E20 at the four-day test at Jerez.
The quickest time of all at the test was set by Nico Rosberg driving last year’s Mercedes.
Grosjean also completed the second-highest distance of any driver at the test.
Bruno Senna logged the most laps in total, covering more than three Grand Prix distances in his two days at the wheel of the Williams FW34.
Marussia were the only team not present at the test, and HRT’s Narain Karthikeyan did not drive at Jerez.
Fastest times – Jerez test
| Driver | Team | Time | Gap | |
| 1 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes* | 1’17.613 | 0.000 |
| 2 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 1’18.419 | 0.806 |
| 3 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes* | 1’18.561 | 0.948 |
| 4 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1’18.877 | 1.264 |
| 5 | Mark Webber | Red Bull | 1’19.184 | 1.571 |
| 6 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | 1’19.297 | 1.684 |
| 7 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren | 1’19.464 | 1.851 |
| 8 | Daniel Ricciardo | Toro Rosso | 1’19.587 | 1.974 |
| 9 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | 1’19.597 | 1.984 |
| 10 | Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus | 1’19.670 | 2.057 |
| 11 | Sergio Perez | Sauber | 1’19.770 | 2.157 |
| 12 | Paul di Resta | Force India | 1’19.772 | 2.159 |
| 13 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber | 1’19.834 | 2.221 |
| 14 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 1’19.977 | 2.364 |
| 15 | Bruno Senna | Williams | 1’20.132 | 2.519 |
| 16 | Jules Bianchi | Force India | 1’20.221 | 2.608 |
| 17 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1’20.454 | 2.841 |
| 18 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 1’20.688 | 3.075 |
| 19 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams | 1’21.197 | 3.584 |
| 20 | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham | 1’21.518 | 3.905 |
| 21 | Pedro de la Rosa | HRT* | 1’22.128 | 4.515 |
| 22 | Jarno Trulli | Caterham | 1’22.198 | 4.585 |
| 23 | Giedo van der Garde | Caterham | 1’23.324 | 5.711 |
*2011 car
The fastest driver at the Jerez test last year was Rubens Barrichello, who set a quickest time of 1’19.832 in the Williams FW33.
Total laps – Jerez test
| Driver | Total laps | Total distance (km) |
| Bruno Senna | 249 | 1,102.572 |
| Romain Grosjean | 212 | 938.736 |
| Kimi Raikkonen | 192 | 850.176 |
| Kamui Kobayashi | 181 | 801.468 |
| Nico Rosberg | 174 | 770.472 |
| Michael Schumacher | 174 | 770.472 |
| Paul di Resta | 170 | 752.760 |
| Heikki Kovalainen | 167 | 739.476 |
| Lewis Hamilton | 166 | 735.048 |
| Felipe Massa | 164 | 726.192 |
| Jean-Eric Vergne | 159 | 704.052 |
| Daniel Ricciardo | 157 | 695.196 |
| Mark Webber | 150 | 664.200 |
| Jenson Button | 147 | 650.916 |
| Sebastian Vettel | 145 | 642.060 |
| Pastor Maldonado | 122 | 540.216 |
| Jarno Trulli | 117 | 518.076 |
| Sergio Perez | 116 | 513.648 |
| Pedro de la Rosa | 108 | 478.224 |
| Fernando Alonso | 106 | 469.368 |
| Nico Hulkenberg | 90 | 398.520 |
| Giedo van der Garde | 74 | 327.672 |
| Jules Bianchi | 46 | 203.688 |
| Team | Model | Total laps | Total distance (km) |
| Lotus | E20 | 404 | 1,788.91 |
| Williams | FW34 | 371 | 1,642.79 |
| Caterham | CT01 | 358 | 1,585.22 |
| Mercedes | W02 | 348 | 1,540.94 |
| Toro Rosso | STR7 | 316 | 1,399.25 |
| McLaren | MP4-27 | 313 | 1,385.96 |
| Force India | VJM05 | 306 | 1,354.97 |
| Sauber | C31 | 297 | 1,315.12 |
| Red Bull | RB8 | 295 | 1,306.26 |
| Ferrari | F2012 | 270 | 1,195.56 |
| HRT | F111 | 108 | 478.22 |
Image © Lotus F1 Team
Arhn (@arhn) said on 10th February 2012, 18:40
My mind got stuck in 2011… When I saw “Lotus quickest”, I thought Green Lotus, I mean Caterham, ex-Lotus.
Katz said on 10th February 2012, 21:19
The first three days were quite exciting but today was a bit flat.
One of the best things to come out of the entire test though was the very small number of mechanical breakdowns. With 9 new cars on the track I expected loads more mebarassing puffs of smoke.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner) said on 10th February 2012, 21:36
I’d like to think that with the combined data of a few days testing, you would be able to pinpoint fastest laps as being relative to the other teams around them, as in, what we will see come Melbourne.
However, given that Gascoyne said that they were pretty much running high fuel throughout the whole test it just throws the whole thing into disarray!
Brilliant! That’s EXACTLY what I want. Ambiguity is fantastic in F1. Love it.
Enigma (@enigma) said on 10th February 2012, 22:24
@keithcollantine I think you forgot to include Jules Bianchi’s 2 or 3 laps from Thursday, before he crashed.
Toro Stevo (@toro-stevo) said on 10th February 2012, 23:26
I thought they were all out laps then straight back in (i.e. he didn’t actually complete a lap finish line to finish line). Not sure they count.
Enigma (@enigma) said on 11th February 2012, 11:03
I believe they do. It’s a lap nonetheless, so it should count, even if it’s not a timed one.