Fernando Alonso lead the way for Ferrari on day four of the week of pre season testing in Jerez, Spain. The Ferrari driver, at the wheel of the team's F2012 car completed 39 lap's finishing just ahead of F1 newcomer Jean Eric Vergne in his Toro Rosso. Sebastien Vettel was 3rd for RedBull Racing while Romain Grosjean completed a great week for the Lotus team by finishing 5th overall.
Despite setting the fastest time on Friday Alonso only managed to complete 39 laps for Ferrari due to a hydraulic issue with the new Ferrari F2012. I believe that the first test of the F1 preseason has been inconclusive due to the fact that Mercedes were using their 2011 car and were fastest on Wednesday and Thursday, so this is not a real indication of where the team's currently stand.
However OI believe that Lotus are in a good position, Kimi Raikkonen, making his comeback after two years away from the sport was fastest on Tuesday the first day of Preseason testing and was very quick on Wednesday meanwhile Romain Grosjean has been extremely quick on his return to F1 after two years away from the sport.
All the team's bar HRT were in attendance at Jerez this week. They announced prior to the start of winter testing that they would be debuting their new car at the second pre-season test in Barcelona on 21st February, however it was announced this week that the team would miss the second test due to the fact that their 2012 car has failed the mandatory FIA crash test's twice.
A new regulation for the 2012 F1 season is that before any F1 car can make it's test debut it must first pass the strict FIA crash test. So if HRT are unable to run their new car in Barcelona that will leave them with only the final preseason test in Barcelona from 1st - 4th March before the team's head off Down Under for the opening race of the 2012 F1 season in Melbourne on 18th March.
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