De la Rosa tops the times at Paul Ricard
Pedro de la Rosa topped the times on the second day of testing at Paul Ricard in France on Thursday - but the leading drivers were separated by just hundredths of a second
The Spaniard was continuing development work on the latest specification Mercedes-Benz engine that had so impressed him in work ahead of the Australian Grand Prix.
After its encouraging performance in Melbourne, de la Rosa was using more revs to evaluate its reliability as he set a best time of 1:04.231 .
That time was just three hundredths of a second faster than Robert Doornbos in the Red Bull Racing-Ferrari, who joined his fellow Michelin runners in working on Imola-specification tyres for the San Marino Grand Prix later this month.
"Yesterday I suffered a lot from gearbox problems and today in the morning too, but the afternoon went well and I took a bit of a risk for the last run," Doornbos told autosport.com.
"It is nice to get that quick time in at the end of the day."
Heikki Kovalainen was third fastest in the Renault despite completing just 11 laps during the day. The Finn broke the suspension of his car after going over a kerb.
Gary Paffett was fourth quickest and Giancarlo Fisichella fifth as he worked on an engine programme.
Toyota test driver Ricardo Zonta put his team's controversy surrounding Mike Gascoyne behind him to work on tyre construction and compounds for Imola, having left Olivier Panis to work on the long runs with the tyres selected on Wednesday.
Vitantonio Liuzzi made his scheduled appearance in the Red Bull Racing but, after causing two red flags for suspected mechanical problems, he ended the day seven tenths slower than Doornbos.
The other red flag was caused by BMW's Robert Kubica, who stopped at 1030am with a mechanical problem.
Today's times:
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. de la Rosa McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:04.231 147 2. Doornbos Red Bull-Ferrari (M) 1:04.262 118 3. Kovalainen Renault (M) 1:04.274 11 4. Paffett McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:04.279 127 5. Fisichella Renault (M) 1:04.380 104 6. Zonta Toyota (B) 1:04.655 133 7. Liuzzi Red Bull-Ferrari (M) 1:04.914 169 8. Villeneuve BMW-Sauber (M) 1:04.961 50 9. Kubica BMW-Sauber (M) 1:05.398 123 10. Panis Toyota (B) 1:05.867 47 All Timing Unofficial
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