Massa flies on slicks at Barcelona

Felipe Massa set a blistering pace in Formula One`s return to testing action, the Brazilian using slick tyres to finish over two and a half seconds in front of his closest rival at Barcelona.

Massa`s best time of 1:18.339 put him 2.7 seconds ahead of Honda test driver Alex Wurz, who also set his best time on slick tyres.

The majority of the teams present at Barcelona were introducing new updates that will be raced for the first time when the European season kicks off in Spain later this month.

Massa`s Ferrari team finally showed off a much rumoured radical new nose cone, with a hole on top of it, while McLaren tried a new rear wing - designed for 2009 regulations - and Renault tested several upgrades, including a new front wing.

McLaren`s Pedro de la Rosa, who also tried out slicks, was third fastest, but over three seconds off Massa`s pace. The Spaniard was the busiest man today with 113 laps covered.

Each team were allocated nine sets of slick tyres for the test, as Bridgestone continues work on preparing for the 2009 season, when grooved tyres will no longer be used.

All drivers, except BMW`s Nick Heidfeld and Toyota`s Timo Glock, sampled the new tyres today.

All the running done with slicks is outside the agreed testing mileage.

Despite not using the slick tyres, Heidfeld was fourth fastest, just a tenth behind de la Rosa, with Nelsinho Piquet down in fifth in the revamped Renault R28.

There were a total of four red flags today, caused by Glock, Piquet and Heidfeld spinning, and Williams`s Kazuki Nakajima going off track late in the session.

“Today was a productive day and the team and mechanics did a good job,” said Toyota`s Glock. “Everybody was focused on the new bits and pieces that we have brought and trying to find the right way forward.

“In the end that`s what we did. I made one small mistake in the morning and spun off but it didn`t cost us too much running time. In the afternoon we collected a lot of data to look at and now we just have to fine-tune that.

“Hopefully overnight we can find the right direction from all the information we have gathered today. The time sheets might not show it yet but I`m happy with our work so far.”

Today`s times:

Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:18.339 77
2. Wurz Honda (B) 1:21.059 75
3. de la Rosa McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:21.566 113
4. Heidfeld BMW-Sauber (B) 1:21.679 105
5. Piquet Renault (B) 1:22.125 69
6. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:22.197 59
7. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:22.431 72
8. Glock Toyota (B) 1:22.590 92
9. Liuzzi Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:22.846 91

All Timing Unofficial

14.4.2008   ▪ Formula One    ▪ Massa    ▪ www.autosport.com