Trulli keeps Toyota on top at Silverstone
Italian Jarno Trulli kept the Toyota team on top of the times on Wednesday at the Silverstone circuit, where nine teams are carrying out their preparations for the upcoming races of the season
After teammate Ralf Schumacher had topped the timesheets on the opening day of the test, it was Trulli's turn to shine with the Toyota on a day where the teams were hindered by the intermittent rain that hit the British track.
Trulli finished with a best time of 1:21.420 after just 48 laps, the Italian outpacing early-pace setter Kimi Raikkonen in the Ferrari by over a tenth of a second.
"In general it was a positive day even though it's difficult to judge comparative performance because it's always very windy here," said Trulli. "The morning went pretty well for us testing set-up and tyres and I felt pretty comfortable with the car.
"Then we changed the suspension settings so we lost some time around the lunch break. After the rain in the afternoon we only had about a half an hour more of meaningful work. But this was just typical of the problems that we can face during testing.
"Overall the running I have been able to complete has been good so I would say that we are in reasonable shape here."
Apart from the rain, the session was also hit by several stoppages, with the marshals having to use the red flags a total of six times.
Mark Webber alone caused three red flags with his Red Bull, stopping with oil leaking from his car at 9:30am and then again at 4:40 pm. The Australian covered the smallest amount of laps with just 33.
Williams' Alex Wurz was third quickest in the session despite pulling off at 2pm due to a hydraulic problem. McLaren's Pedro de la Rosa, fourth fastest, was also hit by trouble in the morning, his car coming to a stop with an oil leak.
The other red flag of the day was caused by Spyker's Adrian Sutil, whose car stopped on track at 11:15am. Despite that, Sutil completed good mileage, although the German finished at the bottom of the times.
BMW Sauber's Timo Glock had the most productive day of all with 82 laps covered as he carried out tyre testing, as well as suspension development and aero work. The team were unable to finish their programme due to the rain.
With some serious rain hitting the track in the afternoon, some teams took the opportunity to test with wet-weather tyres.
Today's times:
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:21.420 48 2. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:21.548 62 3. Wurz Williams-Toyota (B) 1:21.904 64 4. de la Rosa McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:22.018 58 5. Kovalainen Renault (B) 1:22.119 53 6. Liuzzi Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:22.365 52 7. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:22.447 33 8. Glock BMW-Sauber (B) 1:22.481 84 9. Sutil Spyker-Ferrari (B) 1:23.284 72 All Timing Unofficial
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