Felipe Massa finished the first day of the Jerez test as the “one to beat” as he topped the time-sheets with a 1:20.709s, 0.744s quicker than second-placed man, Perez in the Sauber.
The Brazilian managed to set the time just 7 laps into the day, however, he continued to push throughout the session running 101 laps.
Mark Webber had a good showing in the Red Bull finishing the session in third, and the only other man to be within 1 second of Massa’s time – Webber’s time was set on the first lap of a six-lap stint, showing the RB7’s impressive consistency.
Daniel Ricciardo and Lewis Hamilton complete the top five, with them finishing in fourth and fifth respectively.
Hamilton and McLaren opted for short stints today, his longest stint being 11 laps, his best time of the day was set on a single-lap run.
The Toro Rosso of Jaime Alguersuari finished ahead of the debuting VJM04 of Adrian Sutil – every team on-track was running their 2011 package today, unlike last week in Valencia.
Vitaly Petrov stood in for injured Robert Kubica in Thursday’s session and put the Renault into 8th place ahead of Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) and Jarno Trulli (Lotus) who rounded off the top-10.
Timo Glock and Pastor Maldonado finish off the field with the latter of the two drivers over 14-seconds down on Massa – The Williams test driver posted a 1:34.968 after the chequered flag had dropped to end the session after suffering a problem with the car’s rear wing actuator early on in the day.
Test times from day one:
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Yr | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01. | F. Massa | Ferrari | 2011 | 1:20.709 | |
| 02. | S. Perez | Sauber | 2011 | 1:21.483 | +0.774 |
| 03. | M. Webber | Red Bull | 2011 | 1:21.522 | +0.813 |
| 04. | D. Ricciardo | Toro Rosso | 2011 | 1:21.755 | +1.046 |
| 05. | L. Hamilton | McLaren | 2011 | 1:21.914 | +1.205 |
| 06. | J. Alguersuari | Toro Rosso | 2011 | 1:22.689 | +1.980 |
| 07. | A. Sutil | Force India | 2011 | 1:23.472 | +2.763 |
| 08. | V. Petrov | Renault | 2011 | 1:23.504 | +2.795 |
| 09. | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | 2011 | 1:23.963 | +3.254 |
| 10. | J. Trulli | Lotus | 2011 | 1:24.458 | +3.749 |
| 11. | T. Glock | Virgin | 2011 | 1:25.086 | +4.377 |
| 12. | P. Maldonado | Williams | 2011 | 1:34.968 | +14.259 |
All times are unofficial.
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