Red Bull fast in Spain, Toyota in Bahrain

Wed, 11 February 2009, 08:29

Feb.11 (GMM) More bad weather marred formula one testing on Tuesday, with less than 40 days to go until the new in-season ban takes effect

Five teams have congregated this week at Spain’s Jerez circuit for a four day group test, but from mid-morning until well into the afternoon, the tarmac was wet

Four 2009-spec cars are going head-to-head at Jerez, and on Tuesday Sebastian Vettel’s newly launched Red Bull set the pace, even though he had to be rescued by a recovery truck at one point following his second breakdown in as many days

Williams’ 2009 car, again in the hands of test driver Nico Hulkenberg, was next quickest, followed by the new McLaren (Heikki Kovalainen) and finally Nelson Piquet in the R29

Better weather conditions are forecast for Wednesday

“It’s a shame that we lost some track time because at this stage of the season we need to get as many miles on the car as possible,” said Renault driver Piquet

Sebastien Buemi, as per usual, was much quicker than the rest of the field in his 2008 Toro Rosso, but the Faenza based team should soon take delivery of its new Adrian Newey-penned machine, with a statement confirming that Jerez is likely to be the STR3’s “final test session”

The three teams in Bahrain, meanwhile, enjoyed warm weather on Tuesday, but fog delayed the start of the session by two hours

The three 2009-specification cars’ best laps were all within two tenths of one another, led by Toyota’s Timo Glock, followed by Felipe Massa in the Ferrari and BMW’s Robert Kubica, who stopped on the track just after lunch with a mechanical problem

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