Thursday, 12th June 2008

Ferrari's Luca Badoer heads the times at the end of the opening day in Barcelona.

Ferrari's Luca Badoer set the pace at the Circuit de Catalunya today [Thursday], as the F1 teams began a three-day test at the 4.655 kilometre track, home of the Spanish Grand Prix.

Badoer's best effort was a 1 minute 22.043 seconds, more than half a second up his closest rival. The Italian spent the day working on an intensive testing programme, centring on experimenting with various new aerodynamic solutions in preparation for the next few races of the season in France and Britain, as well as trying different set-ups on the F2008.

In the end he did just over 80 laps and got through the planned programme without any technical problems - only the rain, which began to fall in the final hour of testing, left him standing in the garage.

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Robert Kubica, fresh from taking his maiden F1 win in Canada last weekend, was 'best of the rest'. The Pole managed 69 tours, despite a 'minor technical issue' this morning. He was focusing on aerodynamics and mechanical set-ups, evaluating different options for the forthcoming French Grand Prix.

David Coulthard was next up and third for Red Bull Racing, followed by the Milton Keynes-based teams' test and reserve driver Sebastien Buemi. DC and Buemi shared the RB4, with the latter doing most of the running, before the former took over late on.

Buemi used the hard spec Bridgestone tyres for most of the day and despite this being only his first significant run in the car, he was only four hundredths slower than Coulthard. He worked on prep for Magny Cours, evaluating some suspension development work and a few minor aerodynamic modifications.

Gary Paffett was fifth for McLaren-Mercedes but the Brit had a bad day and was delayed in the morning by a gearbox oil leak and by a minor front wing problem in the afternoon. Subsequently he did just 34 laps while trying to do look at some new aero and mechanical components intended for the next two events.

Further down the order, Anthony Davidson was sixth, making a return to the Honda fold after being left jobless following the demise of the Super Aguri F1 team.

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