Barrichello continues where Button left off

By Phil Huff
March 11 2009

The new Brawn GP car is being tested by Rubens Barrichello today and, as the test stops for lunch, it's once again clear that the BGP 001 is a pretty fast car. Despite being the Brazilians first run in the car, he's sitting second on the timesheets, around half a second down from Kimi Raikkonen in his world championship winning Ferrari.

There's been a few minor reliability issues but, with the team squeezing a Mercedes engine in to a car designed for a Honda, and then attaching the Honda Racing F1 gearbox to that engine, that's to be expected. What is hugely encouraging is that the problems are so minor.

Heikki Kovalainen, driving the McLaren powered by the same Mercedes engine, is a further two seconds behind.