Bridgestone motorsport wrap for 13th February 2008
Raikkonen and Hamilton show pre-season form
Defending Formula 1 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen and McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton have has sent their rivals a warning ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on March 16th.
Raikkonen topped the timesheets in pre-season testing in Bahrain, setting a time of 1.30.914 in the new Ferrari F2008, managing 66 laps of trouble-free running.
Teammate Felipe Massa was two-tenths slower in second place. Toyota was the only other team on track with Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock saying they were happy with the progress being made by the new TF108.
Back in Europe, Lewis Hamilton led the way in a McLaren 1-2 at Jerez with the two Mercedes-Benz powered cars recording times in the low one-minute 19-second bracket.
BMW's Robert Kubica finished the day with the third fastest time ahead of the impressive Williams of Kazuki Nakajima and Nelson Piquet Junior's Renault.
Red Bull and Torro Rosso were mid-pack with Honda, Super Aguri and Force India all more than two seconds outside Hamilton's pace-setting time.
Testing from Sakhir (February 9)
1. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1m30.914s
2. MASSA Ferrari 1m31.174s
3. TRULLI Toyota 1m32.382s
4. GLOCK Toyota 1m32.762s
Testing times from Jerez (February 12)
1. HAMILTON McLaren 1m19.102s
2. DE LA ROSA McLaren 1m19.287s
3. KUBICA BMW 1m19.539s
4. NAKAJIMA Williams 1m19.601s
5. PIQUET Renault 1m19.660s
6. HEIDFELD BMW 1m19.958s
7. WEBBER Red Bull 1m20.013s
8. ROSBERG Williams 1m20.029s
9. VETTEL Toro Rosso 1m20.105s
10. COULTHARD Red Bull 1m20.176s
11. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso 1m20.418s
12. BARRICHELLO Honda 1m21.133s
13. DI GRASSI Renault 1m21.200s
14. SATO Super Aguri 1m21.400s
15. LIUZZI Force India 1m21.553s
16. WURZ Honda 1m21.950s
And in other news...
Testing is also underway in the lead-up to the 2008 MotoGP season where Australia's Casey Stoner will defend his title.
Three Bridgestone teams - including Valentino Rossi's Fiat Yamaha team - were in action at Malaysia's Sepang circuit, analysing the race tyres ahead of the first race in Qatar in four weeks.
Rossi impressed in only his third outing on Bridgestone tyres - his quickest time of 2.00.300 was three-tenths of a second faster than the existing track record which Rossi himself holds.
"It has been another trouble-free test with some encouraging times set using our race tyres," said Tohru Ubukata, Bridgestone Motorsport's Manager Motorcycle Race Tyre Development.
"Track conditions were not optimum on the first day but, by the end of the test, the track was actually better than the last test in January, which allowed us to try some more meaningful race simulation runs."
Earlier this month defending Stoner topped the time-sheets in tests at the Phillip Island Australian Grand Prix circuit.
Stoner singled out the latest Bridgestone tyres for special praise - tyres that represent vital stages in the high-intensity development phase before the first race on March 9/10.
"The new Bridgestones had already given us positive feedback at Sepang. They also worked perfectly here at Phillip Island - one of them in particular improves the bike a lot in the exit of the corners, especially in the final section," he said.