Grosjean and Kobayashi share Mugello moment

Clear and sunny conditions greeted the F1 teams in Mugello overnight and to celebrate the positive change two drivers headed the lap charts at day’s end. The resurgence of Lotus (nee Renault) continued when Romain Grosjean set a time of 1:21.603 early in the morning session. He stayed top until close to the end when Sauber driver Kamui Kobayashi matched his time. Amazing.

Sebastian Vettel (+0.2s) and Mark Webber (+0.3s) were next quickest in their Red Bulls. Mark drove in the morning before the RBR team made changes to the car for Vettel’s afternoon run. The day also brought the absolute shock news that Felipe Massa set a faster time than Ferrari teammate Fernando Alonso!

What’s that? Oh, Fernando didn’t drive today. That explains it then.

After the day’s proceedings Grosjean enthused: “It’s always good to end the day on top, but we have to remember that in testing lap times mean very little. Having said that, the car felt great and I was very comfortable from the start. This test gives us an opportunity to try things that we wouldn’t have time to do during a race weekend, so hopefully it’ll help us to keep pushing forward. We’ve done a lot of setup work today, and for sure we’ll need to take some time to look through all the data and analyse what we need to focus on tomorrow, but it’s a good baseline for the final day.”

A full list of times and more pics from Lotus can be seen after the break.

[Pics: Lotus F1 Team/LAT Photographic]

2012 F1 in-season testing – Mugello (Day 2)

1. Romain Grosjean, Lotus – 1:21.603 (97 Laps)
2. Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber – 1:21.603 +0.000s (87 Laps)
3. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull – 1:21.825 +0.222s (64 Laps)
4. Mark Webber, Red Bull – 1:21.997 +0.394s (54 Laps)
5. Felipe Massa, Ferrari – 1:22.257 +0.654s (106 Laps)
6. Jean-Eric Vergne, Toro Rosso – 1:22.422 +0.819s (65 Laps)
7. Daniel Ricciardo, Toro Rosso – 1:22.588 +0.985s (22 Laps)
8. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes – 1:23.404, +1.801s (144 Laps)
9. Charles Pic, Marussia – 1:23.982 +2.379s (46 Laps)
10. Vitaly Petrov, Caterham – 1:24.312 +2.709s (112 Laps)
11. Gary Paffett, McLaren – 1:24.480 +2.877s (59 Laps)
12. Timo Glock, Marussia – 1:24.499 +2.896s (37 Laps)
13. Paul di Resta, Force India – 1:24.749 +3.146s (14 Laps)
14. Bruno Senna, Williams – 1:24.842 +3.239s (100 Laps)