By IANS
Chennai : Times tumbled on day two of the Formula One test at Jerez, Spain, Tuesday as the 4.423 kilometre track dried up and fewer red flags interrupted the proceedings.
According to information reaching here, Force India’s lead driver Giancarlo Fisichella made his official debut for the team and put in 76 laps with a best of one minute, 20.764 seconds that was nearly three seconds on Vitantonio Liuzzi’s time Monday, the first of the three-day test session.
Despite the improvement in time, Fisichella was placed overall 12th of 13 drivers. Fernando Alonso, returning to Renault with whom he won two World championships in 2005 and 2006, headed the time sheets in 1:19.503.
In fact, the top six drivers were in the same second, reflecting the closeness of the cars run on the 2008 specifications including the Standard Electronic Control Unit (ECU) and minus traction control.
World champion Kimi Raikkonen, in his second season with Ferrari, was third (1:19.708) behind Pedro de la Rosa of McLaren (1:19.650).
In a press release, Fisichella said: “It was not too bad today. The circuit was damp in the morning, but by midday it was getting better. We did most of the programme, but unfortunately we had some minor mechanical issues. At the end, with the new tyres, there was a possibility to have a faster time, but unfortunately there was traffic and then I made a mistake, but it’s quite encouraging. I think we can improve quite a lot as we are going in the right direction.”