Brawn Comfortable in Spanish Practice Two

As you may have read in my write-up of Practice One, Brawn were reasonably quiet and finished well with Jens in pole.  For Practice Two it was much the same.  In true Ross Brawn style, the team simply concentrated on putting in solid, useful laps.  I don’t know if I should even bother to tell you who finished Friday on top! (just in case it was Nico Rosberg….again!)

Practice Two: Friday 8th May 2009: 14:00pm - 15:30am, local time (13:00am - 14:30am, British time)

Vettel was the first driver to put a competitive lap in, but whilst I was copying his time down, Rosberg, then Piquet sped to the top (Piquet’s time I can tell you was 1:25:624).  Much like Practice One, the Brawns left it later than everyone else to get started.  Many believe that Brawn’s decision not to add too much to the car is good news as it shows that the team are confident enough in their car to make sure that every part added is 100 percent useful.  This contrasts with a lot of the other teams who seem to be throwing cash away in an attempt to catch up (I’m thinking BMW and Ferrari).

Ten minutes in, Rubens set his first time which placed him in ninth (1:25:579).  After this, the Brazilian raised himself to P4, and just one lap later, he was top (1:23:348, on the harder tyre).  Jenson seemed to be held up by traffic for his first run and he could only get P16 (1:26:423).  It looked as if, in classic Brawn style the drivers had switched roles for Practice Two.  Whilst in the morning Rubens did long fuel stints and Jenson did short tyre evaluations, it now seemed as if they had switched.

Jens continued to push though and before long the Brit had put in a time fit for third (1:23:533).  Soon after the flying Championship leader went two places better and was top of the pack with a fantastic early time of 1:23:057.  Seventeen minutes in and the Brawn cars were in first and second, and all was looking pretty good for we Brawn maniacs.

Nelson Piquet seemed to have little stints of excellence (more often than not filled in with silly mistakes), but it was the struggling Renault driver that managed to knock Jenson from the top spot.  From this point on neither Brawn would make it to pole again, but both drivers continued to put in strong, encouraging performances.

With an hour left Jens was in fifth and Rubens, seventh.  But before long, good old Rubens had elevated himself up to third with a time of 1:22:612 (this would be about where Rubens remained for the rest of the session).

Jenson maintained a consistent pace, but was unable to break free of sixth place.  Whilst Jens was putting in times such as 1:22:814 (probably with a fair bit of fuel on board), his team mate managed a 1:21:843; This time saw Rubens take back P2.  For the Brawn drivers, these positions remained pretty much the same, by the time there was only twenty minutes left, Jens had been as high as P5, but was now P8 and Rubens was still in a strong P3.

With about two minutes left, practically everyone had low fuel and soft tyres.  Jenson was lapping very well, putting in personal best times.  However, unfortunately Rosberg ran out of fuel in the last sector and Practice Two ended under yellow flags.  Jens had to ease off and finished P6; Rubens finished P4.

In conclusion Friday was a great day for Brawn fans.  Despite all the hype, not a lot seems to have changed in the pecking order.  Both sessions saw strong performances by the Brawn lads and even though the time sheets don’t look as encouraging as perhaps they should, the team was able to complete three hours of solid and highly useful testing today.  I think Jens may well have finished the day higher were it not for Rosberg.  However, I think the fact that Rosberg did finish on top, illustrates better than anything I could write that….not a lot has changed and if that is true…I guess good things should continue for Brawn! (fingers firmly crossed!).

1 Nico Rosberg    Williams-Toyota 1:21.588

2 Kazuki Nakajima   Williams-Toyota 1:21.740

3 Fernando Alonso    Renault               1:21.781

4 Rubens Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes 1:21.843

5 Mark Webber    RBR-Renault         1:22.027

6 Jenson Button    Brawn-Mercedes 1:22.052

7 Sebastian Vettel     RBR-Renault         1:22.082

8 Nelsinho Piquet     Renault                  1:22.349

9 Sebastien Buemi     STR-Ferrari         1:22.571

10 Kimi Räikkönen     Ferrari                 1:22.599     

11 Sebastien Bourdais   STR-Ferrari         1:22.615

12 Giancarlo Fisichella Force India-Mercedes 1:22.670

13 Lewis Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes 1:22.809

14 Heikki Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes 1:22.876

15 Felipe Massa     Ferrari               1:22.878

16 Robert Kubica     BMW Sauber   1:22.948

17 Nick Heidfeld     BMW Sauber         1:23.173

18 Timo Glock     Toyota                         1:23.360

19 Jarno Trulli     Toyota                         1:23.623

20 Adrian Sutil     Force India-Mercedes no time