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tests....
oro Rosso remains on top with Buemi
Jerez - Thursday - Test day 3
11/12/08 17:41
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Buemi fastest on all three days of testing at Jerez
The three-day Jerez tests came to a closet this afternoon with the Toro Rosso Ferrari on top for the third straight day of testing at the Spanish test circuit. In Sunny conditions it was once again STR hopeful Sebastien Buemi at the top of the timesheets, lapping the 4.428km circuit over eight-tenths of a second faster than his Wednesday best.
Buemi, who is almost certainly set to line up with the Italian-based squad next season, completed an impressive 139 laps with a best lap of 1:17.258s coming on his 34th tour of the day.
Backing up the pace of Toro Rosso again was Takuma Sato, battling to secure a drive with the team over incumbant Sebastien Bourdais. Sato, who is aiming to use personal sponsorship to secure the seat for next year, was just over-two tenths slower than Buemi on this occasion.
Once again, the test times mean very little as the seven teams present are working on very different programmes, albeit aimed at the same 2009 targets. As was the case yesterday, the best-of-the-rest behind the dominant Toro Rosso squad were McLaren Mercedes, this time with Heikki Kovalainen behind the wheel of the MP4-23.
Kovalainen followed the trend of Toro Rosso in gaining time on the final day of running for the team, stopping the clocks in 1:18.019s as the Finn put in just under 100 laps for the Woking-based squad.
Regular Ferrari racers Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa were fourth and fifth fastest respectively ahead of Fernando Alonso in his low-downforce prepared R28.
Nico Rosberg was next up for Williams Toyota at just over two seconds a lap off the ultimate pace as the team continue to evaluate 2009-specification wings on the FW30. Pedro de la Rosa completed the least number of laps of the day, 47, in his McLaren and was eighth best ahead of Robert Kubica and Christian Klien at BMW Sauber.
Klien lost some track time when his F1.08 stopped on circuit with a mechanical problem and it caps off a difficult week of running for the Hinwil-team as at least one of their drivers has propped up the bottom of the timesheets on each day of the three-day test.
It may be mid-December, but Formula One rarely halts and the test teams will be back in action again for the final test of the year next week at both Jerez and the new Portuguese test facility of Algarve Motor Park.
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