Alonso holds the top spot at lunch
Fernando Alonso wasted no time in setting a quick lap at Jerez © Sutton Images
On his first morning of testing at Jerez this week, Fernando Alonso drew huge crowds to the Spanish circuit and kept them entertained by setting the fastest time by lunch.
He made good use of the Ferrari's impressive reliability to notch up 49 laps in the morning sun, and at 13:00 local time was over half a second faster than his nearest rival Michael Schumacher. However, neither managed to match Schumacher's blistering lap on super-soft tyres yesterday, which is still the fastest of the week.
But despite big names topping the timesheets, most of the attention on Saturday morning was centred around the Renault garage where Nick Heidfeld was trying out for a race seat. With Robert Kubica out for the start of the season at least, Heidfeld took to the cockpit of the Renault R31 to be evaluated as a potential replacement.
Heidfeld completed a series of short runs to start with and soon eclipsed Vitaly Petrov's best time of the previous two days in the same car. The lap was good enough for sixth overall, however Heidfeld insists he is not at Jerez to set blinding lap times, but do the best possible job for the team. In the afternoon he will focus on longer runs to continue to get used to the car before handing it over to Bruno Senna on Sunday.
One man who was out to impress with his lap times was Kamui Kobayashi, who took over the Sauber C30 and set the third fastest time. The car had to be repaired overnight after Sergio Perez's shunt on Friday afternoon, but it showed no ill effects and in the hands of the Kobayashi clocked a time 0.749 seconds off Alonso.
Sebastian Vettel was fourth fastest as he returned to the cockpit of the Red Bull RB7 for the first time since last week's test at Valencia. He notched up more laps than anyone else with 61 to his name and a best that was just over a second off Alonso. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton spent most of his morning in the McLaren garage after completing just 16 laps early on. After his last run in the car on Thursday he said he would push the new MP4-26 harder today, but with limited running he only managed the seventh fastest time.
Lotus continued to up its performance with Heikki Kovalainen clocking a 1:22.793 at the wheel of the T128. He went to lunch ahead of the Force India of Paul di Resta and the Williams of Rubens Barrichello, which had more problems with its KERS.
Times
Driver Car Time Laps
1. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 150th Italia 1:20.493 49
2. Michael Schumacher Mercedes W02 1:21.054 39
3. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber C30 1:21.242 37
4. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull RB7 1:21.574 61
5. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso STR6 1:21.790 53
6. Nick Heidfeld Renault R31 1:21.849 26
7. Lewis Hamilton McLaren MP4-26 1:22.057 16
8. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus T128 1:22.793 37
9. Paul di Resta Force India VJM-04 1:22.945 50
10. Rubens Barrichello Williams FW33 1:23.063 27
10. Jerome d'Ambrosio Virgin MVR-02 1:25.471 45
Credit: ESPN F1 (espn.com)
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