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BARCELONA TEST
DAY FOUR
FRIDAY 12 MARCH, 2011
Driver Pastor Maldonado
Chassis CA225
Location Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona 4.655km
Objectives Mileage for Pastor Maldonado
Weather Wet, heavy rain
Ambient & track temps 13ºC
Pastor Maldonado
completed 23 laps of running in heavy rain posting a quickest time of
1:44.333 to finish second overall of the five drivers running today at
Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya.
The final day of
the AT&T Williams teams test at the Circuit de Catalunya would see any
running severely hampered by heavy rain that was falling on the circuit.
Pastor Maldonado was present but his time behind the wheel would see it
limited to some very slow laps. He was joined by the likes of Schumacher,
Hamilton, and Alonso. By 11AM Pastor had only completed one lap but he would
return to the track to complete two un-timed laps. The first time seen was
from Hamilton with a 1m:57.765, improving with a 1m:54.623.
After a short stop Hamilton would come back out to set a 1m:50.280 followed
by a 1m:51.593 on the next lap. The lunch break would arrive and Pastor had
not set a time, not that it mattered in the conditions. After lunch Pastor
would come back out for another lap. Close to 2:30PM Pastor would come back
out for a longer run. Hamilton would set a 1m:47.304, pitting after five
laps. Pastor would set a 1m:47.610. He would improve with a 1m:46.780
followed by 46.157. Pastor would complete five laps and then pit. Rosberg
had now set a time of 1m:47.757. The rain was still falling but had eased.
Back out would come Pastor for another. He would complete just one lap with
a time of 1m:48.170. With just one hour remaining Pastor had completed
seventeen laps. Pastor would be pushed back into his garage while the team
waited to see if the amount of water on the track would ease off. Just
before the end of the day Pastor would return to the track to set a
1m:44.568, fastest time of the day. But Rosberg would pass this time with a
1m:43.814 as the chequered flag came out for the end of the day and the end
of pre-season testing.
Sam Michael, Technical Director: Today was a complete washout in Barcelona!
It's always useful to run in the wet, but it was too much unfortunately.
Regardless, we've put some useful mileage on the FW33 at this final test,
highlighted a few areas to work on from a reliability and performance side,
and now we're all really looking forward to start racing again.
Pastor Maldonado: It was quite difficult today as the track was so wet. We
tried some different things in the car though looking ahead to the races and
it is looking good. It is my first time driving the FW33 in these kind of
conditions and I think it was really important for me to get a run in the
wet today.
The
AT&T Williams will be back on track for the first race of the season, the
Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, 25 – 27 March.
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