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Friday, 11 February 2011

Jerez day two - Schumacher rules the roost in Spain

Mercedes GP’s Michael Schumacher responded on Friday to Felipe Massa’s swift Thursday pace for Ferrari, as this week’s four-day test continued in Jerez. Schumacher’s fastest lap, a 1m 20.352s, was almost four-tenths of a second quicker than Massa’s best the day before - and six-hundredths up on the Brazilian's own Friday best at the Spanish circuit.

Jenson Button finished third behind Massa as he sampled the new McLaren, the MP4-26, for the first time, whilst Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari took fourth slot after covering 72 laps in the STR6. Alguersuari’s programme featured three key elements - tyre evaluation, weight distribution and set-up work. His team mate Sebastien Buemi will take charge of the car on Saturday.

“I tried all compounds except the super-soft here and I had a good feeling from the car with all of them, getting an idea of their different behaviour,” said the young Spaniard. “I also made progress in terms of using the KERS and the DRS (downforce reduction system) which to be honest, does not look as complicated as I expected it to be. 

“The important thing is that we are making progress every time I go out of the garage. In performance terms, it is still a bit too early to start drawing conclusions, especially as the lap times here vary a lot from the morning to the afternoon, but I am reasonably confident that this side of the car’s progress is on the right track.”


Red Bull’s Mark Webber finished in fifth, ahead of Force India’s Adrian Sutil and Sauber’s Sergio Perez.

Full report to follow.

Unofficial Friday test times from Jerez:
1. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes GP, 1:20.352
2. Felipe Massa, Ferrari, 1:20.413
3. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1:21.009
4. Jaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso, 1:21.214
5. Mark Webber, Red Bull, 1:21.613
6. Adrian Sutil, Force India, 1:21.780
7. Sergio Perez, Sauber, 1:21.857
8. Timo Glock, Virgin, 1:22.208
9. Vitaly Petrov, Renault, 1:22.493
10. Pastor Maldonado, Williams, 1:22.591
11. Jarno Trulli, Lotus, 1:23.216

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