• Jerez Test, Day 1

Raikkonen quickest on comeback

ESPNF1 Staff
February 7, 2012

Kimi Raikkonen marked his official Formula One return with the fastest time of the first day of pre-season testing at the Circuito de Jerez.

Raikkonen's time of 1:19.670 set during a productive morning for Lotus went unbeaten throughout the day as the 2007 world champion clocked up 75 laps. Paul di Resta was the only other driver to drop below the 1m20s barrier as he set a best time of 1:19.772 during his 101 laps in Force India's new VJM05.

Nico Rosberg ended the day third quickest, despite handing the W02 over to Michael Schumacher in the afternoon. Schumacher didn't get as much track time as Rosberg, but still managed to set the sixth fastest time. Ahead of him was Mark Webber in the new Red Bull, who slowly chipped away to improve his time to fourth quickest after a delayed start to his running. Adrian Newey explained that the lack of an early appearance was due to the late arrival of parts from the factory.

"It was a really silly little problem actually," he said. "The rear wing assembly, we designed it to give a quick check over between the launch photography on Sunday and today. So that was late coming down and the fog at Jerez stopped the aircraft landing and sent it to Seville. So we were stuck waiting for it to get from Seville to here."

Between Webber and Schumacher was Daniel Ricciardo, who set a time of 1:20.694 despite stopping out on track halfway through the afternoon, with the team explaining: "Car suffered a drop in oil pressure and the engine protection system shut it down. Nothing serious but not enough time to fix it before 5pm"

There was one other red flag which was caused by Kamui Kobayashi's Sauber. The C31 came to a halt after the car ran out of fuel in what was likely to be a fuel consumption test, but Kobayashi still managed to complete 106 laps on his way to the seventh quickest time.

The only other significant problem of the day came at Caterham, where a problem with the starter motor scuppered any running in the final couple of hours.

Times

Driver Car Time Laps
1. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus E20 1:19.670 74
2. Paul di Resta Force India VJM05 1:19.772 101
3. Nico Rosberg Mercedes W02 1:20.219 56
4. Mark Webber Red Bull RB8 1:20.496 54
5. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso STR7 1:20.694 57
6. Michael Schumacher Mercedes W02 1:20.794 42
7. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber C31 1:21.353 106
8. Jenson Button McLaren MP4-27 1:21.530 61
9. Felipe Massa Ferrari F2012 1:22.815 69
10. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham CT01 1:23.178 28
11. Pastor Maldonado Williams FW34 1:23.371 25
12. Pedro de la Rosa HRT F111 1:23.676 44

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