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Lotus on top as pre-season testing in Jerez begins - The first test of the year starts with Kimi leading

Published by Christine

Pre-season testing for the 2012 season began in earnest today, as all twelve teams took to the track at Jerez to get some mileage under their belts. It was Kimi Räikkönen who led the charge, posting the fastest time early on, and retaining his P1 position throughout the day. Nothing can be read into the times during a test, but I must admit it is nice to see someone other than Red Bull on top.

Kimi Räikkönen, he's back in F1 now, you know?
Kimi Räikkönen, he's back in F1 now, you know?Credit: LAT Photographic

A more meaningful measure is the number of laps completed, with both Paul di Resta and Kamui Kobayashi notching up over 100 laps each. There were two red flags during the session, the first from Daniel Ricciardo who suffered an oil pressure problem, and the second by the aforementioned Kobayashi who ran out of fuel.

The teams were well represented on Twitter, with accounts covering all their progress - good or bad. Here are a couple of tweets from the day's action, starting with Caterham who had to shorten their planned running.

Testing finished for the day unfortunately. No problem with the car but a damaged starter shaft means we cant start it.

MikeGascoyne MikeGascoyne

Hey guys, to answer some questions – it was a conscious decision to run the 2011 car in Jerez... & to test the 2012 car in BCN for the first time to give more time for its development. We're currently testing the 2012 tyres in Jerez.

MercedesAMGF1 MercedesAMGF1

Good day of running today here in Jerez, 62laps and lots of useful information. Hoping for another productive day tomorrow. ;-)

JensonButton JensonButton

2012 Pre-Season Testing - Day 1, Jerez
PositionDriverTeamTimeLaps
1Kimi RäikkönenLotus1:19.67073
2Paul di RestaForce India1:19.772101
3Nico RosbergMercedes1:20.21956
4Mark WebberRed Bull1:20.49653
5Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso1:20.69457
6Michael SchumacherMercedes1:20.79441
7Kamui KobayashiSauber1:21.353106
8Jenson ButtonMcLaren1:21.53060
9Felipe MassaFerrari1:22.81569
10Heikki KovalainenCaterham1:23.17828
11Pastor MaldonadoWilliams1:23.37125
12Pedro de la RosaHRT1:23.67644

All content in the series F1 testing 2012