Rosberg pips Raikkonen to top time in Barcelona
2013 F1 testing
Nico Rosberg led the way as F1 testing resumed at the Circuit de Catalunya.
The Mercedes driver set the fastest time in the last half-hour of the session, producing a 1’22.616 on medium tyres.
But the team again did not enjoy a trouble-free day. Rosberg was sidelined by a gearbox fault in the morning.
Moments after he set the day’s top time Kimi Raikkonen almost replicated it on the same tyres. He ended up second-fastest, 0.007s off the Mercedes.
Sebastian Vettel led the times for most of the afternoon, but ended up fourth-quickest on a 1’22.965.
Fernando Alonso had his first day at the wheel of the Ferrari F138 and did most of his running on the hard tyres. He ended the test third-fastest having covered more laps than anyone else.
The Williams FW35 logged an impressive 86 laps in Pastor Maldonado’s hands following its launch this morning. He ended the day fifth.
Stoppages for Sauber and Caterham caused the day’s two red flags.
| Driver | Car | Best time | Laps | Difference | Tyres | |
| 1 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes W04 | 1’22.616 | 54 | Medium | |
| 2 | Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus-Renault E21 | 1’22.623 | 44 | 0.007 | Medium |
| 3 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari F138 | 1’22.952 | 110 | 0.336 | Medium |
| 4 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault RB9 | 1’22.965 | 66 | 0.349 | Medium |
| 5 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Renault FW35 | 1’23.733 | 86 | 1.117 | Soft |
| 6 | Daniel Ricciardo | Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR8 | 1’23.884 | 73 | 1.268 | Hard |
| 7 | Sergio Perez | McLaren-Mercedes MP4-28 | 1’24.124 | 77 | 1.508 | Medium |
| 8 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes VJM06 | 1’24.144 | 82 | 1.528 | Medium |
| 9 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber-Ferrari C32 | 1’25.124 | 68 | 2.508 | Hard |
| 10 | Max Chilton | Marussia-Cosworth MR02 | 1’26.747 | 65 | 4.131 | Soft |
| 11 | Charles Pic | Caterham-Renault CT03 | 1’27.534 | 49 | 4.918 | Hard |
Image © F1 Fanatic | f1fanatic.co.uk
Vettelfanboy said on 19th February 2013, 19:46
The red bull is definitely the fastest here because it ran 1:23.046 on the hard tyre and 1:22,965 with the medium , that’s an improvement of about a tenth of second only meaning the red bull most probably had a huge load of fuel .
CocoaBuster said on 19th February 2013, 19:57
I don’t know if anyone else noticed, but the Mercedes time was faster today (1:22’616) than their best qualifying time at this track from last year (1’22.882). Obviously, the car is better. So, how much faster is it really compared to last year? Ditto for all of the other cars as well. Hopefully the times will keep tumbling and we will get an answer this week.
Max Jacobson (@vettel1) said on 19th February 2013, 20:01
Sadly, I think that’s about the only session Mercedes will be topping the timesheets in this season!
Beto (@chebeto0) said on 19th February 2013, 20:05
I kinda want Rosberg to be faster than Hamilton. You can call me hater if you want, but I do dislike HAM. Lets see how that goes. At least we’ve seen that Rosberg isn’t slow at all.
Max Jacobson (@vettel1) said on 19th February 2013, 21:59
@chebeto0 – you’re already much better than half of the anti-Vettel bandwagon because you’re admitting the fact that you just don’t like him instead of coming up with excuses, so kudos to you sir!
tmekt (@tmekt) said on 20th February 2013, 1:19
+1
Ben73 (@ben73) said on 20th February 2013, 0:13
I am a big Hamilton fan, all the most talented drivers have their detractors due to that fans allegiance to their competitor. Having said that I think Nico Rosberg is going to be closer to Hamilton than some give him credit. Rosberg is no slouch, just ask schumacher.
Robbie (@robbie) said on 20th February 2013, 5:14
I think there is a good chance NR will be faster than LH, at least initially. The cars are an extension of last year’s, and they have a ton more data on NR than LH. Although LH did use Merc engines, so there’s a nice tie in for him that way. To me it is LH that will have to do the catching up as the team continues to progress and evolve in this new chapter for them. If LH is out of the box faster, I’ll be surprised, and I think NR has shown good resilience and he has the experience and confidence of besting MS for 3 years, and winning his first race last year. I’ll think it is only onward and upward for NR, and LH could/should have his hands full. I think they’ll be a blast to watch.
clappy (@danielc) said on 20th February 2013, 7:20
Ha lol Hamilton catching up u serious the guy is at his peak .I agree will find out how good Ros is but Ham is a class act as proved by last season and that Merc does look better , Ham will be fine im sure he is talented enough to get regular podiums , you don’t become a bad driver for moving teams Alo has done it enough and it has not affected him , and they real close to the same ability.
Robbie (@robbie) said on 20th February 2013, 15:59
I don’t question LH’s abilities. I merely suggest that it would be understandable if LH and the team needed time to gel and that I believe initially, while the gelling occurs, NR, who has already gelled with the team and knows their ways and they his, may have the upper hand. This was not meant as an insult to LH. Just a reality of F1. If LH has the upper hand out of the box, as I say, I will be surprised, and good on LH if it happens…I just don’t expect it. He has never been on a non-top-3 team. He may find himself frustrated initially, and scrambling for answers that come more easily on a proven top 3 team. He has already expressed the reality that communicating with the team has been different…they say things differently and think differently than he was used to at Mac. Don’t get me wrong, I wish him the best, but I still say that he may have his hands full with NR, who has obviously maximized that car better than a 7 time WDC could. So there’s no reason to think that LH is going to trounce NR out of the box, and I think the only chance of that is if somehow the car, which LH had nothing to do with influencing, suits him extremely well and NR not at all…and I think the odds on that are slim.
tmax (@tmax) said on 19th February 2013, 20:25
And HE said, “Let there be an Increase in the SPEED of the MERCEDES, and let it separate the Good from the Best.”
Game ON Lewis !!!!!!!! Way to Go !!!!! :)
Jason (@jason12) said on 19th February 2013, 21:15
Sandbag that Redbull!
Go Mercedes….
Steven (@steevkay) said on 19th February 2013, 22:09
While it looks like good news for Mercedes, the gearbox fault is what troubles me.
They’ve stopped one session due to the car catching fire, another due to brakes not working, and sat out a portion of this session due to gearbox issues.
To me, if they cannot go through the rest of testing without fault, speed really won’t matter since their car will just fail, regardless of whether it’s during qualifying or the race. I hope I’m wrong and that they’re able to challenge for some wins, but they’re giving me some serious doubts.
I understand that part of testing is to iron out these issues… but they have to make some tremendous leaps if they want to be competitive and reliable.
Robbie (@robbie) said on 20th February 2013, 5:30
Nobody knows more than them what leaps they need to make. And F1 usually doesn’t work in leaps. I think Merc deserves some time and for us to all see every car get through the first race before we try to predict reliability, because the season is a work in progress, and every team will have unreliability to some degree or other throughout the season. Even if they both konk out in the first race, that is no guarantee that their season will carry any more unreliability than any other team when all is said and done and averaged out.