Wednesday at Jerez was a great day for the British drivers – with Lewis Hamilton topping the rankings and David Coulthard running him a very close second.
The McLaren and Red Bull pilots ran the Ferrari pairing of Massa and Raikkonen into third and fourth respectively, with Pedro de la Rosa bringing his McLaren home in fifth place.
It was former Jaguar and Red Bull driver Christian Klien’s turn to take a Force India car for a spin while Robert Kubica swapped into the BMW, leaving colleague Nick Heidfeld standing. Having topped the rankings on the previous day, the German was last today.
Anthony Davidson took the car round for Super Aguri, posting a better time than Honda colleague Rubens Barrichello by a little under a tenth of a second.
Lewis Hamilton was enthusiastic about his first stint back in the saddle since Interlagos, which he spent getting the hang of the traction control-free McLaren.
He said: “It was pretty cool to be back behind the wheel of my car again. It has felt like a very long time since the Brazilian Grand Prix.
“I have really kick-started my preparations for the 2008 season here.”
An end-of-day Red Bull team statement said: “They say nostalgia is not what it used to be, but David Coulthard certainly enjoyed tearing round the Jerez track on slick tyres as part of a Bridgestone evaluation for the 2009 season.
“He commented that it reminded him of the final time a Grand Prix was staged here, in 1997. Bitter-sweet memories no doubt, as this was the race where he was politely asked to hand the European GP win to team-mate Mika Hakkinen.
“Back in the present, the day went smoothly for the Scotsman, who was second fastest as he completed an aero test and continued with chassis set-up work.”
For Super Aguri Davidson concentrated on evaluating the engine management settings with the 2008 MES control system.
In the afternoon he completed a programme of gearbox control settings with additional tuning of the engine management.
Times on day two:
- Lewis Hamilton, McLaren-Mercedes: 1:19.371 (73 laps)
- David Coulthard, Red Bull: 1:19.421 (80 laps)
- Felipe Massa, Ferrari: 1:19.761 (97 laps)
- Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari: 1:19.779 (87 laps)
- Pedro de la Rosa, McLaren-Mercedes: 1:19.887 (62 laps)
- Nelson Piquet, Renault: 1:19.982 (71 laps)
- Christian Klien, Force India: 1:20.187 (86 laps)
- Sebastian Vettel, Toro Rosso: 1:20.398 (57 laps)
- Giancarlo Fisichella, Force India: 1:20.470 (102 laps)
- Robert Kubica, BMW-Sauber: 1:20.487 (118 laps)
- Timo Glock, Toyota: 1:20.523 (52 laps)
- Sebastien Bourdais, Toro Rosso: 1:20.533 (75 laps)
- Nico Rosberg, Williams: 1:20.671 (66 laps)
- Andreas Zuber, Honda: 1:20.897 (108 laps)
- Mark Webber, Red Bull: 1:20.944 (44 laps)
- Nico Hulkenberg, Williams: 1:21.068 (67 laps)
- Anthony Davidson, Super Aguri: 1:21.076 (74 laps)
- Rubens Barrichello, Honda: 1:21.184 (103 laps)
- Kamui Kobayashi, Toyota: 1:21.699 (118 laps)
- Nick Heidfeld, BMW-Sauber: 1:22.875 (93 laps)