Williams Barcelona Test 09:03:2011 Day One

BARCELONA TEST DAY ONE
WEDNESDAY 09 MARCH, 2011
Driver Pastor Maldonado
Chassis / engine FW33-01 / CA321
Location Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona 4.655km
Objectives Set-up work, engine mapping
Weather Cloudy and cold in the morning, sunny in the afternoon
Ambient & track temps 16ºC / 23ºC

The opening day of the AT&T Williams final test at the Barcelona circuit would see Pastor Maldonado behind the wheel. It would be a cold and cloudy day as Pastor started the day carrying out constant speed tests. After nearly an hour and Pastor had yet to set a time, even though he continued to circulate around the track.

But it would be Pastor who would bring out the first red flag with the FW33 stopping at Turn 11. Fastest at this point was Vettel with a 1m:22.726, from Massa and Kobayashi. Pastor's car would be recovered on the back of a truck and returned to the pits. It was later confirmed that it was a KERS problem that caused Pastor to stop. He would be stationary in the pits for a considerable time.

By 11:30AM Vettel was still fastest with a 1m:21.865 from Massa and Di Resta. The Williams team would decide to remove KERS from the car to allow them to return to the track in the afternoon. After the lunch break there was no sign of Pastor. Pastor would finally return to the track and just before 3PM would have completed a six lap run with a best time of 1m:27.108. Fastest at this time was still Vettel with his 1m:21.865 which saw Pastor 5.2 seconds off the quickest time. With the majority of the days testing completed it was another day lost for the Williams team.

Pastor had pitted and would return to the track with only fifteen minutes left in the day. He would set a 1m:26.989 and by the end of the day he would complete just twenty nine laps.

Sam Michael, Technical Director: It has not been a productive day for us after we had a KERS fault first thing this morning. We removed the system and were able to get out for some limited running late afternoon.

Pastor Maldonado: It hasn’t been a good day as we didn’t complete our planned programme. We unfortunately didn’t get enough running in to make too much progress.

AT&T Williams will be back on track tomorrow, Thursday 10 February, with Rubens Barrichello driving the FW33 for the second day of the test.

DRIVER      	 TEAM 		  	TIME       BEST / TOTAL
						   LAPS
1 S Vettel 	 Red Bull Racing 	1:21.865   22/112
2 S Buemi 	 Toro Rosso 		1:22.396   103/120
3 V Petrov 	 Lotus Renault GP 	1:22.670   39/116
4 L Hamilton 	 McLaren Mercedes 	1:22.888   49/57
5 F Massa 	 Ferrari 		1:23.324   38/101
6 P Di Resta 	 Force India F1 Team 	1:24.334   33/118
7 K Kobayashi 	 Sauber F1 Team 	1:24.436   96/107
8 N Rosberg 	 Mercedes GP 		1:25.807   91/100
9 J Trulli 	 Team Lotus 		1:26.090   79/98
10 P Maldonado 	 AT&T Williams 		1:26.989   17/29
11 J D’Ambrosio  Marussia Virgin Racing 1:28.982   23/64