On the final day of testing in Mugello Lotus driver Romain Grosjean repeated his efforts from Day 2 and remained the fastest man around the free flowing 5.245km circuit.
Grosjean’s time was set in the afternoon session and the mark of 1:21.035 was the best time recorded over the three days. Fastest in the morning session overnight was Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel. That was enough to keep him second fastest on the day, ahead of Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari and young Aussie Daniel Ricciardo for Torro Rosso.
Reflecting on the day Grosjean appreciated the opportunity Mugello presented and is looking ahead to next weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.
“It was another nice day today so I have been lucky with the weather here. We continued to work on the car and have gained more valuable data. We made a big change to the car at lunchtime and everything went according to plan,” Grosjean said.
“Mugello puts high demands on the driver so it’s been a very good experience for me—and quite a workout! We were conducting a specific programme of evaluating components, so to be quick relative to our opposition even when we were not looking specifically to try to top the times is satisfying. I’m happy at the progress we’ve made here in Italy and looking forward to seeing how well this translates into lap time when we get to Barcelona.â€
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 3)
- Romain Grosjean, Lotus – 1:21.035 (66 Laps)
- Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull – 1:21.267 +0.232s (106 Laps)
- Fernando Alonso, Ferrari – 1:21.363 +0.328s (98 Laps)
- Daniel Ricciardo, Toro Rosso – 1:21.604 +0.569s (117 Laps)
- Sergio Perez, Sauber – 1:22.229 +0.879s (118 Laps)
- Nico Hulkenberg, Force India – 1:22.325 +0.975s (55 Laps)
- Pastor Maldonado, Williams – 1:22.497 +1.147s (63 Laps)
- Nico Rosberg, Mercedes – 1:22.579 +1.229s (129 Laps)
- Oliver Turvey, McLaren – 1:22.662 +1.312s (99 Laps)
- Paul di Resta, Force India – 1:23.002 +1.652s (34 Laps)
- Heikki Kovalainen, Caterham – 1:23.169 +1.819s (139 Laps)
- Timo Glock, Marussia – 1:23.466 +2.116s (110 Laps)
