Force India goes quicker in pre-season test

JEREZ - As lap times tumbled on a sunny and warm day, Force India’s Vitantonio Liuzzi delivered one in 1 minute 20.754 seconds to occupy fifth slot on the time charts on the second day of the pre-season Formula One test session here.

With the wet weather over, the teams could get going with their day’s programme Thursday without a hitch. The morning’s programme concentrated on aero development while the afternoon’s running included comparison runs of the new Bridgestone tyre compounds available this year.

Reviewing his 80-lap session, Liuzzi said: “I think that we can be pretty happy about today. We covered a lot of laps and a lot of the test items we wanted to. For sure we still have to look into a few more areas but overall the car is responding well and reacts to all the changes.

“We tested different settings and different conditions and overall it was always positive, so I have to say we can be really satisfied about how it’s going. The team did a good job and now we have to keep pushing for the next days of testing as we still have to extrapolate the best out of the car.”

The quickest of the day was Japanese Kamui Kobayashi in a BMW Sauber who clocked 1:19.950 around the 4.423-km circuit, ahead of Sebastien Buemi of Toro Rosso (1:20.026) and World champion Jenson Button of McLaren (1:20.618).

Meanwhile, seven-times World champion Michael Schumacher, on a comeback after a three-season break, was sixth fastest in his Mercedes GP car with a timing of 1:21.083 as he completed 124 laps.