Barca Day One: Sato sets the pace for STR

Monday 17th November 2008

On a day that saw plenty of new faces, new designs and new innovations it was an old hat that set the pace at Barcelona with the-returning Takuma Sato topping the timesheets.

The Japanese driver, who has been out of Formula One since Super Aguri's demise earlier in the season, is back in the paddock with Toro Rosso as he sets about trying to land a 2009 race-seat.

And Sato did his chances the world of good with a 1:20.763 as Toro Rosso began evaluating their driver options for next year's Championship.

However, the man who took second place, Sebastian Buemi, is another Toro Rosso hopeful and he wasn't far off the pace, finishing just 3/10ths down on Sato.

Third place went to Honda test driver Alex Wurz, who spent the day running the new Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) that will be implimented next season.

He finished ahead of McLaren's Pedro de la Rosa who was also working on his team's KERS system, which was fitted into the 2008 Championship-winning MP4-23. Fellow McLaren tester Gary Paffett took fifth place ahead of Ferrari's Luca Badoer.

Meanwhile Robert Kubica was seventh for BMW, who were running their 2009 aero package. The interim car features a longer, flatter front wing while the rear wing is smaller than this year's design.

The top eight was rounded off by World Rally Champion Sebastian Loeb, who impressed with his 1:22.003. The Frenchman is running for Red Bull Racing this week after the team offered him a test as reward for his 2008 title victory.

Times
01 T. Sato Toro Rosso 01:20.763 121 laps
02 S. Buemi Toro Rosso 01:21.071 117 laps
03 A. Wurz Honda 01:21.198 77 laps
04 P. de la Rosa McLaren 01:21.417 65 laps
05 G. Paffett McLaren 01:21.956 78 laps
06 L. Badoer Ferrari 01:22.038 94 laps
07 R. Kubica BMW 01:22.341 56 laps
08 S. Loeb Red Bull 01:22.003 82 laps
09 N. Piquet jr. Renault 01:22.560 80 laps
10 C. Klien BMW 01:22.883 53 laps
11 N. Hulkenberg Williams 01:23.794 86 laps
12 V. Liuzzi Force India F1 01:23.794 86 laps
13 A. Sutil Force India F1 01:23.832 88 laps
14 M. Gen� Ferrari 01:24.177 32 laps
15 B. Senna Honda 01:24.343 39 laps
16 G. van der Garde Renault 01:24.908 32 laps
17 L. Di Grassi Honda 01:25.512 48 laps

Your Comments

gruntboy

"@scontar - "My soloution would have been to keep the wings the same as 08 but still bring back slicks and ban all the aero on the side pods..."

Sorry, but your solution would still mean no overtaking. We've had prior seasons without all the extra aero paraphernalia and zero overtaking. Slicks instead of groves won't be enough to change that situation either. The current front and rear wing profiles are such that air flow is too disruptive to the balance of a following car, hence the new requirements. If ugly = racing and overtaking in 2009, I'll take ugly!

On topic - Sato at TR would be...interesting. It'd certaintly bring a healthy sense of fear to the grid next season! Who'd want to be lining up around Taku?..."

wolfinleeds

"totally agree mate, that BMW looks comical! F1 used to have such cool looking cars. I thought funny cars was a different sport!"

alternatego

"Seb Loeb, voted greatest WRC driver of all time - the man's class clearly shows but I'd hate to see him end up like the World Superbike stars that moved to MotoGP and became also rans. Anyway, you think Fernando Alonso would agree to partnering with Loeb? Coz that has the potential to be more embarrassing for the man as being matched by a young rookie in those silver cars."

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