Sidepodcast - All for F1 and F1 for all

Vettel fastest in opening 2011 test - Red Bull open proceedings in Spain with the top time

Published by Christine

The first day of pre-season testing got underway at Valencia today, coinciding with the launch of four more brand new cars. The season is still a good 40-odd days away, but we saw the teams back in action as they start tweaking their 2011 challengers ahead of the racing proper.

Sebastian Vettel leads the way, giving the RB7 a workout
Credit: f1photos.org/cc

Vettel led the way, picking up where Red Bull left off in 2010, whilst Hülkenberg got off to a good start in his new reserve driver role at Force India. Alonso completed the most laps for Ferrari, almost breaking through into 100, whilst Rosberg completed the least.

The Mercedes driver managed only 9 laps before the car stopped out on track with hydraulic problems, causing a red flag. Rosberg was always scheduled to share driving duties with Schumacher, and the car was repaired in time for Michael to complete 15 more laps.

The only other red flag came from Alonso who stopped out on track just a few minutes before the day's running was over.

PositionDriverTeamTimeLaps
1Sebastian VettelRed Bull1:13.76993
2Nico HülkenbergForce India1:13.93871
3Gary PaffettMcLaren1:14.29291
4Paul di RestaForce India1:14.46128
5Fernando AlonsoFerrari1:14.55397
6Kamui KobayashiSauber1:15.62168
7Jérôme D'AmbrosioVirgin Racing1:16.00371
8Vitaly PetrovRenault1:16.35128
9Michael SchumacherMercedes1:16.45015
10Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso1:17.21419
11Rubens BarrichelloWilliams1:17.33577
12Narain KarthikeyanHRT1:18.02045
13Nico RosbergMercedes1:19.9309

All content in the series F1 Testing 2011