Force India 7th fastest

Force India test driver Paul di Resta clocked the seventh fastest time at the Circuit de Jerez.

Paul di Resta clocked the seventh fastest time as, for the second day in row, inclement weather marred the Silverstone-based outfit's testing.
With heavy rain and high winds showing no signs of abating, Force India had to modify its testing schedule with di Resta getting another half day testing in the VJM03 before Vitantonio Liuzzi took over in the afternoon.
di Resta managed to get 33 laps under his belt and his best of 1:30.344 put him seventh in the 12-driver field, two places ahead of Liuzzi who made 24 laps with the best of 1:30.666, which put him just ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
The team made the most of the amended programme on Thursday to run through further set-up evaluation, plus race preparation and fuel and hydraulic systems checks. With no major issues the drivers completed over 250km in total.

"Unfortunately the weather was again very bad, but at this stage any running gives me more experience of the car and how the team works," di Resta later said.

"I ran with the intermediate and wet tyres over the morning, which at least means I have got some solid experience of wet running and it won't be such a novelty when I am faced with similar conditions in places such as Malaysia," he added.
Liuzzi too was upset with the weather. "The weather was so difficult with the constantly changing conditions. It seemed to rain every hour and then dry, but it never reached a stable level. It was either too dry for wets or too wet for dry tyres so you couldn't get a consistent indicator of the performance," said the Italian.

"We did a few pit stop simulations and runs to get a bit more information and the car still seems to be responding well to changes. In these conditions though it's very difficult to get a good understanding of what's going on but everyone has the same weather, we just have to do what we can," he added.

Adrian Sutil will take over the car on Friday while Liuzzi will be back on Saturday to conclude the test.

Sutil Second Fastest in Final Day

Adrian Sutil clocked the second quickest time of the day to round off Force India's four-day testing at the Circuit de Jerez.

In between running through system checks, set-up evaluation and tyre comparisons, the youngster posted his best lap of 1:20.180 which was just half a second behind his pal and McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton.

"We did some really good runs, concentrating mainly on getting as much experience as we could with the new tyres," Sutil later said.


"Set-up wise, we were pretty good already and the car balance is not so far away. We also tried a couple of longer runs and saving the tyres seems to be the key point. We weren't going for a time, just trying to get as much information as possible at this stage to feed back into the programme for next week," explained the German.

Sutil completed 84 laps of the Spanish track on Saturday to bring Force India's total test mileage to more than 1,200km.
Chief race engineer Dominic Harlow said the testing went just as expected and there was no reason to complain.

"We completed the final day of the test with a greater mileage than the previous days despite some poor weather to begin with and a planned period of downtime, which is positive," he said.

"It's been a good first test with the VJM3 confirming the base characteristics of the car and the most prominent effects of the regulation changes for 2010," Harlow said.
Testing resumes next week again from February 17-20 and Paul di Resta will get his first outing in the VJM03 on Wednesday before Sutil and Antonio Liuzzi take over for the remainder of the test.

Hamilton Fastest at jerez

Lewis Hamilton clinched the fastest time at Jerez on Wednesday morning as a drying track and interrupted running allowed for some serious laps.

Testing kicked off on a wet track and with the threat of rain looming. As such the drivers were quickly out on track with Michael Schumacher setting the fastest time of 1:30.549 while Pedro de la Rosa slotted his Sauber into second place.
However, the running was soon cut short as Lewis Hamilton stopped out on track with an as yet undisclosed problem. It took 16 minutes for the marshals to clear his car and return it the McLaren garage, after which the session was green-lighted.
That, though, didn't last long.

Four minutes later the red flags were once again being waved, this time for Force India test driver Paul di Resta. The Scot spun his VJM03, bringing the session to a temporary halt.
When the action resumed, Felipe Massa took advantage of the drying track, clocking a 1:30.327 to lead the way.
The Brazilian was soon overhauled by Sebsatian Vettel with the Red Bull racer posting a 1:29.053 while Rubens Barrichello moved up into second place.
Barrichello's morning programme focused on race stints, during which the Williams driver did an initial run of 14 laps, followed by one of 21 and another of 15.
De la Rosa was the next to take control of the session as the Spaniard put in a six-lap run that ended with him shaving 1.228s off Vettel's best as the track continued to dry out.
With a dry line now in the mix, Virgin Racing finally set Timo Glock out. The German, though, completed just one installation lap before returning to the pits.
Returning to the track a short while later, Glock posted a 1:34.453 on his first attempt, putting him just ahead of fellow newcomers Lotus.
Lotus, who were in action with test driver Fairuz Fauzy behind the wheel, didn't take Virgin's arrival lying down and Fauzy quickly moved ahead with a 1:34.3 as F1 experienced its first battle of the newbies.
Back at the front, Massa hit the P1 slot with a 1:27.665 while Vettel went third as he too broke into the 1:27s.

However, any chance they had of further improving as they burnt off fuel was lost when Barrichello brought out the day's third red flag when he stopped out on track.
And unfortunately for the drivers, during the break to clear the Williams off the track, the clouds began to gather yet again although that didn't stop Massa from extending his P1 time to a 1:26.867 only to be beaten moments later by a charging Hamilton. The Brit's P1 was an impressive 1.125s up on Massa's best.
Unofficial Times

. L. Hamilton McLaren MP4-25 1:25.742 31 laps
2. F. Massa Ferrari F60 1:26.867 +1.125 44 laps
3. P. de la Rosa Sauber C29 1:27.825 +2.083 44 laps
4. S. Vettel Red Bull Racing RB6 1:27.871 +2.129 51 laps
5. R. Barrichello Williams FW32 1:28.256 +2.514 78 laps
6. P. di Resta Force India VJM-03 1:30.080 +4.338 61 laps
7. M. Schumacher Mercedes GP W01 1:30.273 +4.531 50 laps
8. S. Buemi Toro Rosso STR5 1:31.555 +5.813 37 laps
9. V. Petrov Renault R30 1:32.752 +7.010 12 laps
10. F. Fauzy Lotus F1 T127 1:34.396 +8.654 46 laps
11. T. Glock Virgin Racing VR-01 1:34.453 +8.711 4 laps