Soucek quickest young gun at Jerez
Date published : 01 Dec 2009 - 20:09:31
Andy Soucek won the early bragging rights as Formula 1's three-day young driver test got underway at Jerez on Tuesday.The 24-year-old Spaniard, who earned his outing with Williams by winning the revived Formula 2 series this year, topped the times by 0.2s despite a spin at the hairpin.DTM ace Paul di Resta was an impressive second quickest after just half a day's running.The 23-year-old Scot took over Force India's Mercedes-powered VJM02 from Indy Lights champion JR Hildebrand in the afternoon and set his best time near the end of the session.Di Resta, who will be back in action on Wednesday morning, said: Today was very constructive and we achieved what we wanted to achieve, which was to get familiar with the car and build up to speed slowly to fully prepare for the rest of the test.The VJM02 is certainly impressive and although I am still learning, I felt I could get to grips with it fairly quickly.I wasn't trying to go for a time as such, just to get the most out of the car and myself to set up for the coming two days.In the end I could set a good time, but this wasn't the overall goal for today.Di Resta's fellow DTM star Gary Paffett was third quickest on his return to the cockpit of a McLaren, while another Briton, Oliver Turvey, was given a run in the MP4-24 late in the afternoon as his prize for winning the prestigious McLaren Autosport BRDC Award back in 2006.British F3 champion and Red Bull Junior driver Daniel Ricciardo recovered from a hiccough early in the morning when he spun in avoidance of Toro Rosso stable-mate Brendon Hartley to set the fourth fastest time.I don't think I stopped smiling all day, enthused the Australian, who amassed the day's highest lap tally (113).Working with the team was great and they let me go at my own pace until I built up some confidence.After that, we began working on things that will be useful for next season.This was the first time I've ever driven a Formula 1 car round corners, having previously only done a straight-line test, and I have to say, it's got more grip than anything else I've ever driven.F3 Euro Series champion Jules Bianchi was fifth quickest for Ferrari, while Brawn Mercedes fielded both British IRL racer Mike Conway and Swedish teenage hotshoe Marcus Ericsson.The pair were split on the timesheet by 18-year-old Californian Alexander Rossi, who impressed BMW Sauber with his feedback and how well he coped with the physical demands of driving an F1 car.Belgian Bertrand Baguette, who earned his drive by winning the World Series by Renault category this season, covered some 105 laps in Renault's R29 en route to the ninth-best time ahead of Hildebrand and Turvey.Hartley's day got off to an inauspicious start when he spun the Toro Rosso at the quick right-hander after the chicane and almost collected the close-following sister Red Bull car of Ricciardo, bringing out the red flag.The damage was repaired in time for Hartley to return to the track by the end of the morning, but the 20-year-old New Zealander propped up the timesheet after completing a 2010-oriented job list including aero measurement testing, running the car with ballast to simulate the weight of next year's cars with full fuel tanks, and brake testing.Testing times from Jerez (December 1)1 SOUCEK Williams 1m19.158s (87)2 DI RESTA Force India 1m19.369s (46)3 PAFFETT McLaren 1m19.426s (54)4 RICCIARDO Red Bull 1m19.534s (113)5 BIANCHI Ferrari 1m19.626s (91)6 CONWAY Mercedes 1m19.920s (58)7 ROSSI BMW Sauber 1m20.227s (82)8 ERICSSON Mercedes 1m20.333s (50)9 BAGUETTE Renault 1m20.511s (105)10 HILDEBRAND Force India 1m20.537s (49)11 TURVEY McLaren 1m20.856s (27)12 HARTLEY Toro Rosso 1m21.325s (69* laps completed in brackets
