Mark Webber bounced back from a gearbox issue to successfully complete Red Bull's second race simulation of the week on the third day of pre-season testing at Catalunya.
The Australian took over at the wheel of the RB8 from defending champion Sebastian Vettel, but saw a gearbox issue restrict his running during the morning session at the Spanish circuit.
With the issue resolved, Webber was able to successfully complete a race simulation during the afternoon and with times being very much irrelevant as a result, was pleased with the outcome of the day.
“All in all, it wasn't a bad day at all,” he said. “Not the smoothest of morning's and we didn't get too many laps done there, but in the afternoon the race simulation went OK. We're still learning plenty.
“It would have been nice to have done a few more laps, but I think everyone always wants to get 20 or 30 more and, even with the problem this morning, there were loads of positives to look at. We're a very ambitious team, so we'll keep working on that.”
Head of race engineering Ian Morgan was also happy with the result of the simulation, with the afternoon being seen as a good way to recover from the morning.
“Mark only got a handful of laps in before we had a problem with the gearbox,” he said. “But whereas it didn't set us back too much yesterday, today needed more time.
“Mark then went out for his race simulation this afternoon a bit cold, but he managed to put a whole race distance on and the gearbox ran flawlessly. We stopped a couple of laps earlier than planned because we saw something in the data, but in the end it was nothing. So, while we had a limited morning, the afternoon was a pretty good recovery.
“These two days of race simulations have been valuable too in that we've got some good information on the tyres.”
