Hulkenberg tops day 2 of F1 testing

Nico Hulkenberg of Force India dominated the second day of winter testing at Circuit de Catalunya in Spain.

Nico Hulkenberg of Force India dominated the second day of winter testing at Circuit de Catalunya in Spain.

Published Feb 23, 2012

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Germany's Nico Hulkenberg handed Force India a confidence boost on Wednesday when he clocked the fastest time in pre-season testing after an exhausting day's drive.

Hulkenberg timed 1m22.608 from a total of 112 laps with Sauber's Sergio Perez in second spot and world champion Sebastien Vettel, who had been quickest in the morning, finishing third fastest.

“We started the day with some aero work, trying some constant speed runs and collecting more data,” said Hulkenberg.

“Then, the rest of the day was spent working on the balance of the car and trying out all four tyre compounds. I did some short runs, long runs and just got a feel for the tyre characteristics and how the car reacts to them.

“Once again the car has been very drivable all day and our baseline set-up has proved to be a good starting point for running all the different compounds.”

Vettel's progress was hampered by the cold weather which meant some equipment froze in the morning before the action got underway.

“I’m happy that we got a lot of laps done. Unfortunately, we had a little bit of a problem, it was small, but with testing you stop whenever there’s an issue, take a look and see what’s what and that always takes up a bit of time,” said Vettel.

“But nevertheless, in the afternoon I was quite happy. We got a lot of laps done, more than 100, so we got through most of the programme.

“I think we are on the right road with the car. The first impressions at the last test were fine. The car reacted the way we expected. I keep talking about the loss of downforce compared to last year, as we don’t have the tools we had, but this is the same for everyone, not just us.”

Lotus did not test after pulling out on Tuesday due to a chassis problem.

Testing continues until Friday and there will be a final series of testing at this location from 1 to 4 March, before the teams travel to Australia for the opening race of the season in Melbourne on 18 March.

TEST TIMES - 22 FEBRUARY:

1. Nico Hulkenberg (Force India-Mercedes) - 1:22.608

2. Sergio Perez (Sauber-Ferrari) - 1:22.648

3. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull-Renault) - 1:22.891

4. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) - 1:23.180

5. Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso-Ferrari) - 1:23.639

6. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes) - 1:23.806

7. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes-AMG) - 1:24.555

8. Valtteri Bottas (Williams-Renault) - 1:25.738

9. Vitaly Petrov (Caterham-Renault) - 1:26.605

10. Charles Pic (FRA/Marussia-Cosworth) 1:27.343

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