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BARCELONA TEST
DAY THREE
SUNDAY 20 FEBRUARY, 2011
Driver Pastor Maldonado
Chassis / engine FW33-01 / CA321
Location Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona 4.655km
Objectives Setup work and mileage for Pastor Maldonado
Weather Wet and cloudy in the morning, dry and sunny in the afternoon
Ambient & track temps 14ºC / 16ºC
Day three of the
AT&T Williams test at the Barcelona circuit would see Pastor Maldonado
replace Rubens Barrichello. As was the first day the track would be wet for
the start of the morning session. It would not be until just after 8:30AM
that Pastor would leave his pit. On his first lap he would set a 1m:46.032
to be fifth behind Rosberg. Pastor would improve with a 1m:43.307 to be
second. But it would be Pastor who would bring out the first red flag of the
day. Pastor would put his car into the gravel at Turn five. With the track
still fairly wet Pastor's covered car would be put on the back of a truck to
be taken back to the pits. It looked like Pastor had lost the car mid corner
rather than on the way in.
Prior to his off Pastor had set times starting from the 1m:45s to the
1m:43.121. Fastest was now Massa with a 1m:42.245 after improving his times.
Massa would lower this to a 1m:42.080, but Glock would move ahead with a
1M:41.862. There would be another red flag at 10:00AM when Perez stopped at
Turn Four. Massa would cause another red flag just before 10:40AM. He would
lose his car at the exit to Turn Four. Just before 11:00AM Massa was fastest
from Perez, Webber, Ricciardo, and Maldonado in fifth. Massa would
eventually return to the track but would spin again bringing out another red
flag.
Sutil would now be fastest with a 1m:40.126 at around 11:25AM. Webber had
also improved to be second with a 1m:41.258. Pastor had dropped to eighth
with Pastor still in his pit after completing eleven laps. With the track
conditions improving Hamilton would move to the top of the times with a
1m:35.504, 4.6 seconds ahead of Sutil. It appeared that Hamilton was on
intermediate tyres when he made his very rapid run. Ricciardo would move
into second, 0.219s behind Hamilton with a 1m35.723s. His next lap was a
1m:33.640 to be fastest 1.8 seconds ahead of Hamilton. Again Ricciardo would
improve with a 1m:32.465. Massa was now second with a 1m:35.212 as everyone
ran on the intermediate tyres.
Ricciardo would put in a sub 1m:30s lap with a 1m:29.775 to be 5.4 seconds
clear of the rest. For the Williams team Pastor was still in his pit as
Ricciardo set a 1m:29.102. Other drivers would also improve with Perez,
Petrov, and Karthikeyan second through to fourth. Ricciardo would set
another benchmark with a 1m:28.811. The Williams team would report that they
were looking into a suspected alternator issue with Pastor's car. Just
before 12PM Ricciardo would go half a second quicker with a 1m:28.329.
Webber was out on slicks and would set a 1m:32.538, to be only eighth. Sutil
would improve with a 1m:29.229 but remained in third. It was changing
rapidly with Hamilton now fastest with a 1m:28.053.
It was now the midday break for the teams with the Williams team hopefully
now having time to fix Pastor's car. Pastor was now in tenth as the
afternoon session got underway. Trulli would be first out followed by
Pastor. The track was still a bit damp as Pastor dropped to twelfth as
drivers improved. Lap fourteen from Pastor and he would set a 1m:30.133
running on slicks to be sixth fastest. His next lap was a 1m:30.019 to be
fifth. Pastor was now fourth with a 1m:29.053. Another driver to improve was
Rosberg with a 1m:31.057 to be sixth. Pastor's run would see him set time
sin the 1m:29s and 1m:30s. Pastor would complete five laps and then pit.
Hamilton was back out and would improve his quickest time bringing it down
to a 1m:26.819.
Buemi had replaced Ricciardo for the afternoon and was now fourth,
1m:28.880. He would improve to be second, 1m:27.102. Pastor was back out and
his second lap was a 1m:28.353 seeing him move up to sixth. Petrov was now
third while Pastor would set a 1m:27.255 to be third fastest. His next lap
was a 1m:27.594. Pastor continued to circulate around the track trying to
make up for the lost time in the morning. He would pit after an eight lap
run. Petrov would put his Renault on top of the times with a new benchmark
for the day of 1m:26.342.
Pastor would return to the track at around 2:15PM while Hamilton would lower
his quickest time with a 1m:23.914. Petrov was now second but Sutil would
move ahead of him in the times. ON a run late in the day Webber would move
up to second with a 1m:24.995 while Rosberg moved into third. He would
improve to go fastest with a 1m:23.752. But his time would not remain
fastest for long as Petrov went faster with a 1m:23.474. But Rosberg would
move ahead of Petrov with a 1m:23.168. At the end of the session Pastor
would finish in fourth with a time of 1m:24.815.
Sam Michael,
Technical Director: The circuit was wet this morning, which meant the
time was spent mainly on Pirelli Intermediate tyres. We had a problem with
the alternator late morning that necessitated a change so most of our laps
were completed in the afternoon session. We went through many systems checks
while Pastor continued putting mileage on the FW33. Furthermore, we
evaluated some setup directions to explore some different areas on the car
aeromap.
Pastor
Maldonado: It was a good day for us overall. This morning it was wet and
we lost some time as I spun the car trying to judge the track conditions
when it was quite slippery. After that we had a problem which lost us more
time while the team fixed it. This afternoon was really good though and we
put in some consistent times while trying different things in the car.
Everything is running well and I am happy as I feel we have improved the car
from Jerez.
AT&T Williams
will be back on track tomorrow, Monday 21 February, with Pastor Maldonado in
the FW33 for the final day of the test.
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