Barcelona day three - Alonso takes top spot on slicks

Renault’s Fernando Alonso topped the timesheets as this week’s multi-team test at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya continued on Wednesday. Alonso’s best, a 1m 18.483s lap, was set on Bridgestone’s 2009 slick tyres and put the Spaniard almost a second ahead of former sparring partner Michael Schumacher, who returned to the cockpit for Ferrari.

Alonso covered 100 laps as he completed a busy set-up programme for the forthcoming Spanish Grand Prix, alongside his work on the slick tyres. The former world champion will hand over the R28 to his team mate Nelson Piquet on Thursday.

“The day has been good and I was happy with the developments to the car,” Alonso said. “But we still need to keep improving because it seems that our competitors have also improved and so it is still difficult to say how we really compare with them. We have to wait until next week to get a full picture of where we stand. It was fun to try the slick tyres, which gave very good grip.”

Full report to follow.

Unofficial Wednesday times from Barcelona:
1. Fernando Alonso, Renault, 1:18.483
2. Michael Schumacher, Ferrari, 1:19.323
3. Adrian Sutil, Force India, 1:19.424
4. Robert Kubica, BMW Sauber, 1:19.785
5. Nico Rosberg, Williams, 1:19.841
6. Rubens Barrichello, Honda, 1:19.920
7. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, 1:20.591
8. Sebastien Bourdais, Toro Rosso, 1:20.715
9. Mark Webber, Red Bull, 1:20.849
10. Jarno Trulli, Toyota, 1:20.867

17.4.2008   ▪ Formula One    ▪ Alonso    ▪ www.formula1.com