Massa signs off at Jerez with fastest time
2013 F1 season
Ferrari became the third different team in as many days to lead the times in the Jerez test.
Felipe Massa set the quickest time of the test so far with a lap of 1’17.879 on his third and final day of running.
The next-fastest driver was Nico Rosberg who completed a mammoth 148 laps for Mercedes – more than five times the number the car managed over the previous two days.
Mercedes bounced back from a fire on Tuesday and a brake failure and crash for Lewis Hamilton on Wednesday to cover more than two Grand Prix distances on Thursday.
Sebastian Vettel made his first appearance at an F1 test in 2013 and ended it third-quickest in the Red Bull RB9.
Kimi Raikkonen also made his 2013 testing debut and was fourth, completing just 40 laps. Lotus ran new reflective material on their exhaust during the day.
As on the previous three days the running was interrupted by red flags on three occasions. Two were caused by drivers immediately after they left the pits: Jean-Eric Vergne barely made it out of the pit lane, and Charles Pic came to a stop on the run to turn two.
The final red flag came with five minutes to go when Jenson Button came to a stop. He inspected the left-rear of the McLaren, then had to steady it to keep it from rolling away.
James Rossiter started the day’s running for Force India but had an unfortunate incident when he knocked one of the team’s mechanics over. The team member operating, who the team are not naming, fell on to the nose of the car but was unhurt.
Paul di Resta took over the car in the afternoon but did only seven laps before stopping with an exhaust problem.
| Driver | Car | Best time | Laps | Difference | Tyres | |
| 1 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari F138 | 1’17.879 | 85 | Soft | |
| 2 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes W04 | 1’18.766 | 148 | 0.887 | Medium |
| 3 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault RB9 | 1’19.052 | 102 | 1.173 | Medium |
| 4 | Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus-Renault E21 | 1’19.200 | 40 | 1.321 | Hard |
| 5 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR8 | 1’19.247 | 85 | 1.368 | Hard |
| 6 | James Rossiter | Force India-Mercedes VJM06 | 1’19.303 | 42 | 1.424 | Soft |
| 7 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes MP4-28 | 1’19.603 | 83 | 1.724 | Hard |
| 8 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber-Ferrari C32 | 1’19.934 | 110 | 2.055 | Medium |
| 9 | Max Chilton | Marussia-Cosworth MR02 | 1’21.269 | 78 | 3.390 | Soft |
| 10 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Renault FW34 | 1’21.575 | 86 | 3.696 | Medium |
| 11 | Charles Pic | Caterham-Renault CT03 | 1’22.352 | 57 | 4.473 | Soft |
| 12 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes VJM06 | 1’23.729 | 7 | 5.850 | Medium |
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Candice said on 7th February 2013, 16:06
Lotus got the seat fitting wrong for Kimi…wasted 3 hour according to Turun Sanomat.
They also had electrical problem after the lunch(maybe kers related), which halted their remaining running.
BBC and Autosport don’t even bother to report these, while making a big deal on Lewis crashing off.
firstLapNutcaseGrosjean (@sorin) said on 7th February 2013, 16:28
Thank you for the info. I tought it was a steering wheel problem, again.
Himmat said on 7th February 2013, 16:08
Caterham are so screwed. Talk is they might not even make it to the end of the season!
PaulM (@pmelton) said on 7th February 2013, 16:18
Source?
verstappen (@verstappen) said on 7th February 2013, 16:20
Let’s see.
I think Marussia and Force India also have problems.
Abe (@1abe) said on 7th February 2013, 17:20
Force India had a exhaust prioblem today. Apart from that i didnt think they had any problems in the last 2 days.
Abe (@1abe) said on 7th February 2013, 17:41
*dont
BasCB (@bascb) said on 7th February 2013, 16:09
Good feelings for Massa, and no boubt a much happier team there compared with last year. Hamilton will be glad that the car finally got some good running under its belt too, now he will be pumped up to try it out tomorrow.
Its also encouraging to see the Marussia getting some decent running with solid times in today. McLaren had a bit of a slow start again, but I guess they will be fine. Only hope the car stopping problem was not the same they have had several times now with fuel pickup issues.
Maimai (@maimai) said on 7th February 2013, 16:09
Rosberg’s missing from the standings.
BasCB (@bascb) said on 7th February 2013, 16:10
Hm, Edd Straw just tweeted that apparently Button had a loose rear wheel and that was why he pulled over and stopped the car.
Luke (@lukes) said on 7th February 2013, 16:17
Not that old chestnut again!
dan (@f190) said on 7th February 2013, 16:18
Typical Mclaren…
Maimai (@maimai) said on 7th February 2013, 16:10
Rosberg’s missing from the list.
Eddie (@wackyracer) said on 7th February 2013, 16:11
I dont see Rosberg on the time table
robfff said on 7th February 2013, 16:13
Massa looked like he was pushing there with low fuel. They looked like they were trying to figure out the cool-down time of the tyres between runs. They did two stints, one after the other with almost identical times.
The first stint:
Outlap
1:17.879 (26) Fastlap
1:31.476 (27) Cooldown lap
1:18.374 (28) Fastlap
1:19.598 (29) Tyre degrading
1:20.880 (30) Tyre finished
Pits
Second stint:
Outlap
1:17.886 (33) Fastlap
1:34.309 (34) Cooldown lap
1:18.341 (35) Fastlap
1:19.646 (36) Tyre degrading
1:21.019 (37) Tyre finished
Pits
Brace (@brace) said on 7th February 2013, 16:18
Good thing is that, except the cooldown lap and the last lap, times are identical to within a tenth of a second on both runs.
Nomore said on 7th February 2013, 16:22
we dont know how fuel Massa had…in my opinion in Jerez Ferrari, Mclaren, Red Bull can go easily in 1.16.xxx ore even 1.5.xxx in full potential of the cars
Guiii said on 7th February 2013, 16:37
Amazingly consistent there…
Good signs for Massa, if he can duplicate that sort of programme easily ^_^
Alexander (@al3xander) said on 7th February 2013, 16:44
hes been conistant through out the weeks test in both long runs and these quali runs which is a sign that he is confident and ready to be competitive and consistant from the start
Guiii said on 7th February 2013, 16:42
Glory run, just like 2012. The problems still remain.
Jeanrien (@jeanrien) said on 7th February 2013, 16:55
The most worrying thing in all that is probably the tyre deg, let’s hope it’s due to the track because 1 sec every 5 laps … Indeed Pirelli wanted more pits stop but at this rate it will be a lot more than usual.
DRS won’t even be necessary for passing …
Let’s hope it’s just from Jerez
Luke (@lukes) said on 7th February 2013, 17:04
I Agree, Don’t like the look of the tyre degradation on the Merc almost half a second a lap. That’s got to be soul destroying. There’s Nico driving his heart out and the car is going slower and slower and slower. Must take the fun out of it. But hey it’s all about the show!!
robfff said on 7th February 2013, 17:35
They have said that this track is MUCH more abrasive than any other track. So much so that they dont want to return here next year, because the tyre info is useless.
Sheila (@st91) said on 7th February 2013, 16:20
Vergne only 2 tenths behind Vettel? It seems that the Red Bull is hiding his strength…
Calum (@calum) said on 7th February 2013, 16:40
3 different ‘winners’ in 3 days – hopefully the racing is like testing this season!
jochenrindt78 (@jochenrindt78) said on 7th February 2013, 16:51
any indication what happened to Button in the end?
TribalTalker (@tribaltalker) said on 7th February 2013, 17:08
I must say I had a chuckle at the bit about JB:
“The final red flag came with five minutes to go when Jenson Button came to a stop. He inspected the left-rear of the McLaren, then had to steady it to keep it from rolling away.”
So was it the tyre rolling away from the car or the car rolling away from JB?
I find both hard to believe… I’m just glad he was safe & got plenty of laps in.
JB (@catracho504) said on 7th February 2013, 17:48
I totally agree with what @lukes is saying…. seriously…. the tyres are just taking too much protagonism in F1. I know it´s a challenge for all but come on now… let them race for Christ´s sake!!
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) said on 7th February 2013, 18:28
All the cars are showing pretty high degradation and it’s more because of this:
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2013/02/07/hembery-jerez-surface-worse/
naiFexx (@naifexx) said on 7th February 2013, 18:29
Are you sure?
Well for me i like some tire deg, i really didn’t like old times processions on track.
Timothy Katz (@timothykatz) said on 7th February 2013, 18:17
Gutierrez managed 110 laps today
I wonder how his neck feels.
Mike the bike Schumacher (@mike-the-bike-schumacher) said on 7th February 2013, 19:25
Wow 148 laps! Mercedes should enter Le Mans in the W04 :P
That would be interesting though a 24hr race to F1 specs!
@keithcollantine do you know what the lap record is at Jerez? Would be interesting to compare this years testing times, with last years……
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) said on 7th February 2013, 19:30
@mike-the-bike-schumacher
Yeah it was in here, I don’t think they’re anywhere near it:
Live: 2013 pre-season testing day 3: Jerez
Mike the bike Schumacher (@mike-the-bike-schumacher) said on 7th February 2013, 20:20
Ah, I see, Cheers ;)