Ferrari tester Luca Badoer topped the timesheet on the first day of Barcelona testing – but didn’t have things entirely his own way.
On an opening day that featured unpredictable weather, starting sunny then gradually clouding over until a thunderstorm forced the eight teams testing to abandon the track an hour earlier than expected, BMW’s Robert Kubica and Red Bull’s David Coulthard pushed him a close second and third.
Badoer topped the timesheet with a 1:22.412, while Kubica’s fastest effort stood at 1:22.682 and Coulthard’s at 1:22.724. Red Bull tester Sebastien Buemi was fourth while the single McLaren of Gary Paffett came in fifth.
According to the team, Paffett spent the day evaluating a number of new aero and mechanical components intended for the next two races after being delayed in the morning by a gearbox oil leak and by a minor front wing problem in the afternoon.
Coulthard’s day was also disrupted. He was originally scheduled to take over for the final couple of hours of the test and only managed a small number of laps before rain stopped play.
Honda’s Anthony Davidson, filling in for the unavailable Alex Wurz and Jenson Button with his first F1 action since his Super Aguri team folded and left him driveless, was the first of the nine cars running not to break one minute 23 seconds.
June 12 timesheet:
- Luca Badoer, Ferrari: 1:22.412 (82 laps)
- Robert Kubica, BMW Sauber: 1:22.682 (69 laps)
- David Coulthard, Red Bull: 1:22.724 (21 laps)
- Sebastien Buemi, Red Bull: 1:22.764 (79 laps)
- Gary Paffett, McLaren: 1:22.938 (36 laps)
- Anthony Davidson, Honda: 1:23.208 (81 laps)
- Nico Hulkenberg, Williams: 1:23.619 (112 laps)
- Romain Grosjean, Renault: 1:23.899 (60 laps)
- Kamui Kobayashi: Toyota: 1:24.442 (82 laps)