Renault & Honda on money as McLaren struggle
By Karl King
April 12 2006
The addition of transporters carrying Michelin shod teams spelled the end of Ferrari topping the Barcelona timesheets today. The Renault and Honda duos led the way as the air temperature at the Spanish track reached 18C.
Renault's timesheet attack was fronted by tester Heikki Kovalainen, the young Finn just under two tenths faster than Rubens Barrichello.
Championship leader Fernando Alonso didn't do very much running as his car stopped on track, but was only a tenth off the troubled Honda driver.
In a productive day for the Honda team, Anthony Davidson was fourth ahead of Ricardo Zonta who was running for Toyota.
Red Bull's David Coulthard was another person to stop on track, but the Scot was sixth with his RBR team mate Chritian Klien in eighth behind the Williams of Mark Webber.
McLaren's first day testing at Barcelona was disappointing. Pedro de la Rosa managed only the ninth fastest time, his day being stopped early thanks to an engine failure. Team mate Kimi Raikkonen, who only managed to complete around half a GP distance, was 1.002s off of his fellow Finn's pace, putting him 13th. His car arrived in the morning from Woking and he only got out on track shortly before 14:00. Raikkonen was just 0.002s off of Nico Rosberg, who was 12th.
McLaren only managed a total of approx 453kms between their two drivers.
Times from Barcelona (12/4/06)
1. KOVALAINEN Renault 1m14.955s
2. BARRICHELLO Honda 1m15.135s
3. ALONSO Renault 1m15.251s
4. DAVIDSON Honda 1m15.354s
5. ZONTA Toyota 1m15.426s
6. COULTHARD Red Bull 1m15.671s
7. WEBBER Williams 1m15.683s
8. KLIEN Red Bull 1m15.747s
9. DE LA ROSA McLaren 1m15.781s
10. MASSA Ferrari 1m15.860s
11. HEIDFELD BMW 1m15.917s
12. ROSBERG Williams 1m15.955s
13. RAIKKONEN McLaren 1m15.957s
14. KUBICA BMW 1m15.974s
15. LIUZZI Toro Rosso 1m16.389s
16. GENE Ferrari 1m16.446s
17. PANIS Toyota 1m16.812s
18. SATO Super Aguri 1m19.328s