Finally a decent day's testing and a sightly better picture emerging. Tomorrow is said to be mostly dry too, showers expected only in the evening, so we can look forward to more running from the teams.
Interesting day, Webber's time was done only on a five lap stint and anyway all the teams are sand bagging as the times are way off the fastest around this track. Tomorrow might be a different story and we might see some teams show their hand. The true test, of course is Barcelona, If your car is fast there, it will work everywhere.
Mclaren looks very good. Button did a pretty decent time and if he is able to get that kind of time then Hamilton will be able to get a lot more from the car. Again, the fuel loads are a mystery. There were a couple of interesting indicators though, most interesting was Alonso and Schumacher on track at the same time with the same compound of tires and almost identical stint. Alonso's being 2 laps longer and this is how their times went;
14:21 And Schumacher pits too. His stint was 10 laps, averaging 1m22.4s and with a best of 1m21.9s.
14:21 Alonso comes in after a 12 lap run averaging 1m21.8s and with a top time of 1m21.427s.
Read what you want into it, but I would rather be in the Ferrari camp right now than the Mercedes camp. They, Mercedes, are trying to sort out the front of the car, and Ferrari are waiting for their new DD diffuser to arrive.
Sauber did a 7 lap stint at one point, their low fuel run and their time being;
15:50 Stats from the Sauber driver's stint: seven laps with a best of 1m22.2s and an average of 1m22.6s.
Red Bull, Williams, and Renault did the following on their shorter stints;
Webber did 17 laps with an average of 1m23.8s and a best of 1m22.8s.
Hulkenberg did 12 laps with an average of 1m23.3s and a best of 1m22.7s.
Just five laps for Kubica, a best of 1m22.2s and an average of 1m23.9s.
