MARCH 19, 2009

Today is the day to watch McLaren

With the final day of testing before the start of the season all eyes will be on Jerez de la Frontera to see whether McLaren has been sandbagging - or whether the team really has had the serious problems that have been reported.

With the final day of testing before the start of the season all eyes will be on Jerez de la Frontera to see whether McLaren has been sandbagging - or whether the team really has had the serious problems that have been reported. Yesterday Heikki Kovalainen lapped the track in 1m18.202s, the third fastest time of the test thus far, and while this was still four-tenths slower than Jenson Button's best for Brawn GP, it was nonetheless a sign that McLaren is much closer to the pace than some were saying. Nico Rosberg was also up there in his Williams with a lap of 1m18.071s.

The other times recorded in the test includes 1m18.3s for both Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet in the two Renaults, while Rubens Barrichello did the first two days for Brawn and recorded a best of only 1m18.398s, although the track was obviously slower at that point. Lewis Hamilton was not able to better 1m19.121s but one wonders what he might have achieved if he had been going for times, while Nico Hulkenberg and Kazuki Nakajima both lapped the Williams in the 1m20.0s bracket.