De la Rosa fastest as testing ends

Pedro de la Rosa ended the final official Formula One test of the season with the quickest time at Jerez in Spain on Thursday.

The McLaren test driver was just four hundredths of a second faster than Ferrari's tester Luca Badoer, with the two teams appearing as closely matched as they have been in recent races.

Mark Webber was an encouraging third fastest for Red Bull Racing, with Nick Heidfeld setting the fourth best time despite bringing one of the two red flags of the day out when he stopped out on track.

Nelson Piquet Jr. rounded out his three days of testing with Renault with the fifth fastest time, while Jenson Button continued the evaluation of new Honda concepts to set the sixth best time.

Although Rubens Barrichello had been upbeat about the new Honda parts, Button was not so convinced.

"I cannot tell you much really," said the Briton. "We don't know exactly what we are taking (to Fuji). At the moment we are just collecting data, so we have to see how it goes."

Jarno Trulli was seventh, while Sebastian Vettel was eighth fastest after causing the second flag when he ran off the circuit.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time      Laps
1.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:19.617   68
2.  Badoer        Ferrari             (B)  1:19.656   68
3.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:20.067   42
4.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber          (B)  1:20.184   94
5.  Piquet        Renault             (B)  1:20.655  120
6.  Button        Honda               (B)  1:20.831   66
7.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:21.621   77
8.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:21.626   82
9.  Rossiter      Honda               (B)  1:21.663   39
10.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:22.148   57
Source - http://autosport.com

Luca Badoer was a second time at Jerez

Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa dominated the second day of testing at the Jerez circuit, which is hosting the final test of the 2007 season this week.

McLaren driver De la Rosa, whose best time of 1:19.267 after 70 laps was over half a second faster than Red Bull driver Mark Webber's, tested some new aerodynamic components which could be used in the final three races of the season.

Third quickest Luca Badoer was a second off de la Rosa's pace with the Ferrari, the Italian edging Nick Heidfeld in the BMW Sauber. Heidfeld, taking over from yesterday's pace-setter Timo Glock, covered 106 laps.

Scuderia Toro Rosso were the only team with two drivers in action today, with Tonio Liuzzi doing the driving for most of the session. The Italian caused one of the three red flags of the day when he lost a rear wheel, although fortunately he did not crash.

Teammate Sebastian Vettel took to the track around 4:30pm and finished at the bottom of the times.

Jenson Button took over from teammate Rubens Barrichello, driving the revised RA107 car for the first time. The Briton completed 74 laps on his way to the sixth fastest time of the day.

Renault test driver Nelsinho Piquet was seventh quickest and also the busiest man on track with 111 laps completed. The Brazilian caused the other two red flags of the session when he went off track, first in the morning and later in the afternoon.

Ralf Schumacher tried out some new front and rear wing configurations with his Toyota, the German winding up eighth fastest ahead of Williams' Nico Rosberg, who only began working around midday.

The session took place until clear skies, with air temperatures of around 30 degrees.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time     Laps
1.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:19.267   70
2.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:19.947  106
3.  Badoer        Ferrari             (B)  1:20.249   69
4.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber          (B)  1:20.318  103
5.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:20.624   47
6.  Button        Honda               (B)  1:20.624   74
7.  Piquet        Renault             (B)  1:20.804  111
8.  R.Schumacher  Toyota              (B)  1:21.101   76
9.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:21.608   31
10.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:21.863    1

Source - http://autosport.com/