Despite finishing in the middle ranking in the testing in Barcelona, Mercedes GP PETRONAS, Ross Brawn is confident of achieving victory at the season-opening racetrack, Sakhir, Bahrain. Brawn is confident seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher and team mate Nico Rosberg will have cars that are capable of challenging at the front. Testing in Barcelona had Mercedes McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton finished the final day of testing on top, with merely 0.539 separating the fastest 7 drivers. Hamilton came in a fraction of a second faster than Red Bull’s Mark Webber whilst Ferrari’s Felipe Massa came in third. Remarkably, Adrian Sutil came in forth with the Force India car, showing that they will remain competitive in the new season, running with Mercedes manufactured engines. Malaysia’s other favourite, Lotus Racing team, finished 11th, but above Virgin Racing which was enough to make Tony Fernandes jumping as his team had beaten a team led by another billionaire, Richard Branson. Both teams are running on Cosworth engine. I wonder why they don’t go for Ferrari or Renault as they are more potent engines.

Here is the full list of the results of the final testing in Barcelona:

1. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren-Mercedes, 1 minute, 20.472 seconds, 134 laps
2. Mark Webber, Red Bull Racing-Renault, 1:20.496, 61
3. Felipe Massa, Ferrari, 1:20.539, 114
4. Adrian Sutil, Force India-Mercedes, 1:20.611, 100
5. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull Racing-Renault, 1:20.667, 76
6. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes GP, 1:20.745, 123
7. Rubens Barrichello, Williams-Cosworth, 1:20.870, 84
8. Kamui Kobayashi, BMW Sauber-Ferrari, 1:20.911, 67
9. Sébastien Buemi, Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari, 1:22.135, 88
10. Robert Kubica, Renault, 1:23.175, 107
11. Heikki Kovalainen, Lotus-Cosworth, 1:25.251, 65
12. Lucas Di Grassi, Virgin Racing-Cosworth, 1:26.160, 49

formula1-cars-force-india-lotus-racing2010

In a separate story, we note that Lotus Racing had just signed up international new broadcaster CNN as one of their sponsors. Good stuff..Can’t wait for Malaysian GP season to start which is from 1 April.


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