• Barcelona Test - Day Two

Hulkenberg beats Alonso to top spot

ESPNF1 Staff
February 26, 2010 « Chandhok closing on Campos seat | »
Nico Hulkenberg set a new fastest lap in the afternoon © Getty Images
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Williams' Nico Hulkenberg stole Fernando Alonso's thunder by pipping him to the top spot on the Spaniard's final day of pre-season testing.

Alonso gave his home crowd something to shout about in the opening hour of the session, when he obliterated Mark Webber's benchmark time from Thursday by 0.7 seconds. The run was almost certainly on low fuel and he set his quick lap at the start of a five lap run. He then went marginally faster ahead of lunch, before settling into running longer stints in the afternoon. Hulkenberg and Williams were running an alternative schedule, focussing on long runs in the morning and two-lap sprints in the afternoon.

Pedro de la Rosa was in third place in the Sauber, some 0.3 seconds adrift of the top pair but ahead of Tonio Liuzzi in the Force India and Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull. Vettel stopped out on track with 40 minutes of the session remaining but still completed a very healthy 125 laps over the course of the day.

Jarno Trulli caused two red flags © Sutton Images
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Two other red flags were caused by Jarno Trulli's Lotus, both stoppages a result of a faulty steering rack. Despite the setbacks, technical director Mike Gascoyne appeared content with his team's work. "Lots of work tonight," he wrote on Twitter. "Generally very good progress on set-up direction today from Jarno. Long way to go but direction very clear."

Both the Lotus and the Virgin showed some improvements in lap time and by the end of the day were around five seconds off Hulkenberg's headline pace. Virgin was the slowest of the pair, but spent much of the morning session in its garage repairing the cars crash damage from Thursday. Once the car was up and running, however, the team appeared to be pleased with its progress and overall reliability.

Jaime Alguersuari enjoyed another full day of testing in the Toro Rosso and was sixth fastest ahead of Michael Schumacher's Mercedes. The seven-time champion had a relatively low-profile day, but spent some of the afternoon behind closed garage doors as his team made set-up adjustments. Eighth fastest was Lewis Hamilton, 1.5 seconds off Hulkenberg, but over 2.5 seconds ahead of Robert Kubica in the Renault whose track time was limited due to a suspension problem.

Testing resumes in Barcelona on Saturday ahead of the teams' final pre-season running on Sunday.

Pos. Driver Car Best Lap Laps
1. Nico Hulkenberg Williams FW32 1:20.614 99
2. Fernando Alonso Ferrari F10 1:20.637  134
3. Pedro de la Rosa Sauber C29 1:20.973  114
4. Tonio Liuzzi Force India VJM03 1:21.056  90
5. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull RB6 1:21.258  125
6. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso STR5 1:21.571 104
7. Michael Schumacher Mercedes W01 1:21.689 85
8. Lewis Hamilton McLaren MP4-25 1:22.152  93
9. Robert Kubica Renault R30 1:24.912 53
10. Jarno Trulli Lotus T127 1:25.524 70
11. Timo Glock Virgin VR-01 1:25.942  52

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