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F1 Teams Complete Second Round Of Tests In Spain

BARCELONA, Spain- After completing the first scheduled tests of the new season, the 2012 formula one teams headed from the Southern Spanish city of Jerez to the Northeast city of Barcelona at the Circuit de Catalunya for the second teat that were slotted for the 21 st to the 24 th of February. But the test turned out to be big surprises, which saw one team, Lotus, completely pull out of the events altogether, and ask some teams if they could test one more additional day.

Day one turned out to be a normal and convincing run for the Defending World Champion, Sebastian Vettel, who even on the hardest of tires recorded a 1:23:265 for the fastest time of the day. Along with Lotus was Marusssia, who could not get tester Charles Pic a chance to get use to the car, but did manage to do better than the Enstone team, completing 121 laps of reliability.

Nico Hulkenberg managed to finish second on day one, but on the next session the following day, the German went full out to set an even faster time then Vettel, with a 1: 22:608, with no incidents that day at the Circuit.

But if Hulkenberg was a no name on the top of the timesheets, the third day continued even more as Williams second year man Pastor Maldonado headed the top of the timesheets with a 1:22:391, making it the fastest time so far all week. But this could be explained by the warmer temperatures that morning. Mark Webber caused a stir later that day when his Red Bull car stopped at turn eight with a mechanical problem.

But on the final day, Kamui Kobyaschi, up in the timesheets all week, finally got his reward by taking the best time all week in his Sauber with a 1:22:213, as well as completing 144 laps on that day. Maldenado continued his rare from by taking second best, only four tenths off.. The top eight cars on the final day were only separated by a matter of a few of those tenths, and while those top eight were lucky, Heikki Kovalainen was not, as his Caterham car could not go any further and by midday, the Finn only completed 70 laps.

For Kobyaschi and Sauber, the week ended off well, as the only problem was the failure of an exhaust system, which broke twice during this test, was quickly repaired and put back onto the track.

The final test for the teams will return again to the Circuit de Catalunya on March 1 st , as the teams will enjoy another four day test before the squads have to pack up and get ready for the first race of the season.

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