FEBRUARY 22, 2012

Hulkenberg tops second day in Barcelona

Nico Hulkenberg's Force India (1:22.608) set the quickest lap on the second day of this week's Barcelona F1 test in Spain.

Nico Hulkenberg's Force India (1:22.608) set the quickest lap on the second day of this week's Barcelona F1 test in Spain.

"We started the day with some aero work, then concentrated on the balance and trying out all four tyre compounds," he outlined. "Once again the car has been very drivable all day and our baseline set-up has proved to be a good starting point."

Sergio Perez (1:22.648) had a more encouraging run for Sauber after his mechanical problems of the opening day.

"Today was a lot better, even though we lost a bit of track time because of an exhaust problem," the Mexican explained. "I believe we are working in the right direction."

A quarter of a second slower after more than 100 laps in the Red Bull RB8 was world champion Sebastian Vettel (1:22.891).

The team's head of race engineering Ian Morgan said: "It was so cold this morning that we had problems with pit stop practice, simply because the equipment was freezing up as we tried to use it!

"After that we ran a bit of a free practice simulation, but we discovered a small problem, which lost us some time and meant that we had to run a compressed qualifying simulation before lunch. Afterwards we got through a whole race distance which, at the car's first go, is always encouraging."

Fernando Alonso (1:23.180) was fourth quickest with the Ferrari F2012, with Daniel Ricciardo (1:23.639) fifth in the Toro Rosso STR7, although the young Aussie completed only 50 laps due to a couple of mechanical issues, the most time consuming being a driveshaft problem.

Lewis Hamilton (1:23.806) put another 120 laps on McLaren's MP4-27, the morning focused on data gathering and set-up evaluation before the team carried out a race simulation later.

"The car behaves really well in high-speed corners - I think the baseline is higher than it was last year," the 2008 champion said.

"We don't know the fuel-loads, so it's still hard to determine the pecking order. We didn't bring any upgrades here, but our understanding of the car has developed since the test in Jerez."

Nico Rosberg (1:24.555) had a productive morning behind the wheel of the new Mercedes W03 but a gearbox oil leak put paid to the afternoon programme.

"It doesn't affect my positive feelings about the test programme and I'm looking forward to driving again on Friday," he said.

Valtteri Bottas (1:25.738) enjoyed himself putting another 117 laps on the Williams FW34, working to a run plan aimed at familiarising him with a typical Friday first practice session.

Vitaly Petrov (1:26.605) had his first day as a Caterham driver.

"We had a couple of issues with the seating position and the brakes," the Russian explained. One thing I noticed is that this car behaves a little differently from my previous experience and I may have to adjust my driving style to get the best out of it. I've been quite aggressive before but I think this car responds better to smoother inputs."

Charles Pic (1:27.343) continued to gain more experience with MaRussia.