It was Red Bull’s Sebastion Vettel, when a wet track clocked his best time a 1m 22.593 =s. The wet winds and rains significantly increased the pressure for eatery driver. Yet, soon after lunch weather conditions mellowed and the cars were ready to roar.
McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton was right behind Jerez, who lapped a mere fraction of a second behind, Third was Ferrari’s Felipe Massa. Toro Rosso in his STR5 from Sebastien Buemi followed in his in 79 laps. fifth just ahead of Mercedes GP’s Michael Schumacher who clocked in sixth at 1m 23.803s after 111 laps was BMW Sauber’s Pedro de la Rosa.
Later on in the day, Jerez he said “From the laps that we achieved, we have again confirmed the reliability of the car, and from the impressions and data gathered, we can say that the pace and performance looks very good.” And you could see how happy Schumacher was with his switch to Mercedes.
Team Lotus today on their new Cosworth-powered T127, was one of the first teams to get started but problems with his power steering made it impossible for him to perform his best. In eleventh place was Malaysian driver Fairuz Fauzy who managed to complete 76 laps,. “It’s been an excellent day for the whole team. Firstly I want to say a big thank you to Fairuz who did an excellent job today with the first proper day of running,” said Lotus technical chief Mike Gascoyne.
Unofficial Wednesday times from Jerez:
- Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, 1:22.593, 104 Laps
- Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, 1:23.017, 72 Laps
- Felipe Massa, Ferrari, 1:23.204, 72 Laps
- Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso, 1:23.322, 79 Laps
- Pedro de la Rosa, BMW Sauber, 1:23.367, 76 Laps
- Michael Schumacher, Mercedes GP, 1:23.803, 111 Laps
- Adrian Sutil, Force India, 1:24.272, 28 Laps
- Paul di Resta, Force India, 1:25.088, 74 Laps
- Vitaly Petrov, Renault, 1:26.237, 55 Laps
- Rubens Barrichello, Williams, 1:27.320, 109 Laps
- Fairuz Fauzy, Lotus, 1:31.848, 76 Laps
- Timo Glock, Virgin, 1:34.417, 10 Laps