Sidepodcast

Ferrari dominated the first test in Barcelona, but thankfully other teams are managing to claim some of the glory for themselves. Yesterday was McLaren, and today it’s Honda Racing. No Jenson Button still, of course, but Rubens Barrichello did the job for the Japanese team, with test driver James Rossiter following close behind. The conditions were mostly wet, with the pair starting on extreme wet tyres, but as the weather improved, they switched to regular wet weather tyres.

Lewis Hamilton dropped down behind the two Hondas but was quickest of the rest of the field. Hamilton had a good day developing the tyre intelligence of the team, but his session ended on a low note, with a technical failure. Hamilton caused a red flag late in the afternoon when he stopped on the track. Pedro de la Rosa joined him for McLaren and was working on the aerodynamics of the setup of the car.

Ralf Schumacher split the two McLaren’s in fourth place. His Toyota, along with Kobayashi’s, was one of the first cars to take to the track and brave the puddles. Toyota couldn’t really complete their programme until the weather cleared up in the afternoon, but they made the most of the wet tyre information gleaned during the morning.

Anthony Davidson continued to work hard in his Super Aguri and ended the day in 9th position overall. “This has been another positive week. Jerez is a circuit I know very well and so I was able to get a better feel for the 2007 tyres this week than I did in Barcelona. We made improvements to the car all week and ended with a good balance so I am happy with our progress.”

In other testing news:

• Massa and Badoer fell from grace after being near the top of the time sheets for the first two test days. This final day saw them languishing down in 13th and 15th place respectively.
• BMW had Nick Heidfeld and Timo Glock out in force, testing their extreme weather tyres and then comparing the differences between new and used wets.
• Fisichella was once again trying to get as many miles on the clock in his Renault, but he was testing the new gearbox for durability. Team mate Kovalainen had a mechanical failure in the afternoon but managed to complete everything he had planned.

For all the times and statistics, go here.