Fernando Alonso posted the quickest time as the
Formula 1 group test continued into a third day at the Catalunya circuit near Barcelona.
With Toro Rosso joining the fray for the first time, ten drivers took the circuit in Spain as teams continued to work on preparing for the start of the European season and also on looking ahead to the 2009 campaign and the change in regulations that it will entail.
Alonso completed his second day of running at the wheel of
Renault's R28 as the team continued to evaluate upgrades to the car ahead of next weekend's Spanish Grand Prix. He completed a busy programme of set-up work during the morning before heading out onto the track on slick tyres shortly before lunch, quickly posting the quickest time of the day with a lap of 1min 18.483secs.
"The day has been good and I was happy with the developments to the car," he said. "But we still need to keep improving because it seems that our competitors have also improved and so it is still difficult to say how we really compare with them. We have to wait until next week to get a full picture of where we stand. It was fun to try the slick tyres, which gave very good grip."
Alonso ended the day almost a second clear of
Michael Schumacher, who returned to the wheel of a Formula 1 car to help
Ferrari in planning for the future. Using an F2008 that had been modified to reproduce the levels of aerodynamic downforce expected next season, the German spent the day working through a programme centred on
Bridgestone tyre work and he posted a fastest time of 1min 19.323secs from 83 laps of the Catalan venue.
Helping to maintain the form that saw
Giancarlo Fisichella go second quickest yesterday, the Italian's team-mate
Adrian Sutil was third fastest for
Force India as the team brought its test session to an end.
