Monaco GP || May 26 || 15h00 (Local time)

Jerez Test: Heidfeld shines for Renault

Setting the fastest time of the day

By

12 February 2011 - 17:40

Nick Heidfeld couldn’t have dreamt of a better story as he completed his first day of testing with Lotus Renault with the fastest time.

The German driver, who made another step towards replacing Robert Kubica at the wheel of the R31 while the Polish recovers from his injuries sustained in a rally crash, went faster than former World Champions Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher. We don’t know how much fuel he had on board though.

The Williams team had further KERS problems this afternoon but Rubens Barrichello still managed to complete a valuable number of laps. McLaren Mercedes lost some time in the middle of the day because of mechanical problems. There were also troubles for Sauber.

Paul di Resta had an off during the afternoon. The Force India team subsequently revealed that its VJM04 was affected by a brake balance issue since the start of the day.

Ten minutes to the end, it was Buemi’s Toro Rosso which stopped on track with a liquid leak.

Testing will conclude tomorrow.

The fastest lap times of the day:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Times	Gap	Laps
01	N. Heidfeld	Lotus Renault R31	1.20.361		86
02	F. Alonso	Ferrari F150	1.20.493	+0.132	131
03	M. Schumacher	Mercedes GP W02	1.21.054	+0.693	114
04	L. Hamilton	McLaren MP4-26	1.21.099	+0.738	36
05	K. Kobayashi	Sauber C30	1.21.242	+0.881	84
06	S. Vettel	Red Bull RB7	1.21.574	+1.213	98
07	S. Buemi	Toro Rosso STR6	1.21.681	+1.320	92
08	H. Kovalainen	Team Lotus T128	1.21.711	+1.350	61
09	R. Barrichello	Williams FW33	1.22.227	+1.866	99
10	P. di Resta	Force India VJM04	1.22.945	+2.584	64
11	J. d’Ambrosio	Virgin MVR-02	1.25.471	+5.110	72