• Jerez Test, Day 4

Alonso quickest on disrupted day for Ferrari

Laurence Edmondson
February 10, 2012

Fernando Alonso set the quickest time of the final day of testing but it wasn't a smooth day for Ferrari as the F2012 only completed 39 laps.

Alonso set the headline time of 1:18.877 during an encouraging morning, but was consigned to the garage for much of the afternoon. He did rejoin late in the day to complete a further run but despite the quick lap Ferrari is likely to be frustrated at the lack of running after Pat Fry admitted the car is not where the team would like it to be.

Jean-Eric Vergne was second in the Toro Rosso on a 1:19.597 as the next seven cars were covered by half a second. Red Bull also lost track time due to electrical trouble on the RB8 in the morning but Sebastian Vettel recovered to complete 50 laps and set the third fastest time just 0.009s slower than Vergne, while Lewis Hamilton was fourth in the MP4-27, another 0.034s further back.

Romain Grosjean was fifth on a 1:19.729 - unable to match his time set yesterday which remained the fastest lap of the week. Although Grosjean managed a total of 95 laps Lotus confirmed that a water leak had cost it some time, but is confident the problem will be rectified before the next test at Barcelona.

Sixth-placed Kamui Kobayashi's best lap was a 1:19.834, but he lost some track time in the afternoon due to a hydraulic problem. Nico Hulkenberg's first day in the Force India saw him seventh quickest with a 1:19.977, closely followed by the productive Bruno Senna who completed 124 laps.

Despite covering the most miles, Senna caused two of the three red flags during the day by stopping out on track, while Kobayashi's problem also saw the session temporarily halted.

Jarno Trulli propped up the timesheets two seconds off the pace in the Caterham, but got plenty of mileage under his belt as he lapped 117 times in a best of 1:22.198.

The next opportunity to test the new cars comes at Barcelona, with the second test taking place from February 21-24 and the third from March 1-4.

Times

Driver Car Time Laps
1. Fernando Alonso Ferrari F2012 1:18.877 39
2. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso STR7 1:19.597 80
3. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull RB8 1:19.606 50
4. Lewis Hamilton McLaren MP4-27 1:19.640 86
5. Romain Grosjean Lotus E20 1:19.729 95
6. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber C31 1:19.834 76
7. Nico Hulkenberg Force India VJM05 1:19.977 90
8. Bruno Senna Williams FW34 1:20.132 125
9. Jarno Trulli Caterham CT01 1:22.198 117

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