Grosjean and Kobayashi tied at the top in Mugello

30 comments on “Grosjean and Kobayashi tied at the top in Mugello”

1. 

   Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
   2nd May 2012, 17:25

   Quite an appropriate result given today’s On This Day:

   https://www.racefans.net/2012/05/02/f1-fanatic-roundup-25/#onthisday
   1. 

      AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
      2nd May 2012, 21:51

      Indeed @keithcollantine Setting equal times boggles the mind slightly, but given how extremely competitive F1 cars are, teams like Sauber and Lotus will be operating within .5s between them (crude guess) so it then becomes less surprising, but no less fascinating.
      1. 

         jsw11984 (@jarred-walmsley)
         2nd May 2012, 22:18

         Its more than that @andrewtanner its actually .0005s (crude guess between them as they both set 1’21.603 so the difference must be in the hundred thousandths of a second. Which is an incredibly small difference, however I would like to point out that Grosjean’s time is more impressive as he set it earlier in the session.
         1. 

            AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
            2nd May 2012, 22:37

            @jarred-walmsley I would think it is in a race or qualifying session with fuel loads etc…but in practice it could have been down to anything I guess. Though he will still occupy the top spot by virtue of setting it first.
2. 

   Todfod (@todfod)
   2nd May 2012, 17:26

   It’s always tricky trying to make conclusions from testing, but Lotus do seem to show some genuine pace.

   Also shocking that Mclaren is putting in such few laps. It seems like the whole Mclaren garage seem to be sulking a little bit, as they didn’t seem too keen on the Mugello test.
   1. 

      Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
      2nd May 2012, 17:40

      @todfod Turns out Paffett had a gearbox problem – just updated the article.
3. 

   BasCB (@bascb)
   2nd May 2012, 17:33

   Looks like Schumacher is reliving the heyday of endless testing today. A massive 144 laps for him, let us hope they learnt a lot and keep within range of the top cars the whole year.
   1. 

      Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
      2nd May 2012, 17:43

      @bascb I was going to use the phrase ‘a gross of laps’, but it sounded a bit archaic!
      1. 

         BasCB (@bascb)
         2nd May 2012, 17:51

         LOL, fits the man then, doesn’t it @keithcollantine, so a gross of laps it is!
   2. 

      AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
      2nd May 2012, 21:56

      @bascb I hope so. I’m still darn nervous about those pesky tyres of theirs!
4. 

   Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
   2nd May 2012, 18:06

   The Red Bull is looking quick, as is the Lotus. There is some speculation as to who is the quickest obviously as we don’t know what each team’s running in terms of fuel loads etc. and obviously Mclaren isn’t running its racing drivers, so it remains to be seen who will turn up at Spain fastest.
   As for Ferrari, who knows how quick they are relative to the competition; I doubt highly they’ll be challenging for pole any time soon, but if they can cut the deficit to within say 4tenths I think Alonso may still be in the running.
   Does anyone know if any of the teams have tried to imitate Mercedes’ double DRS or a similar system yet?
5. 

   Adam (@akitch1275)
   2nd May 2012, 18:38

   What tire set was Grosjean using? Would be interesting if he was on a harder compound.
   1. 

      Cleste
      2nd May 2012, 21:14

      Yes, he was on the medium compound tyre.
   2. 

      JCost (@jcost)
      2nd May 2012, 23:21

      I’d love to know not only his tyre sets but how many laps he managed to put on those tyres and graph showing his performance from first lap ’til the last lap on the same set of tyres, that’s the kind of info that matters in tests like this, particularly in these times of über important tyres…
6. 

   Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
   2nd May 2012, 18:52

   Ferrari were running the old car today (Bahrain configuration) to compare it with the new car tomorrow which will contain some new updates
   the interesting thing is that Ferrari’s original version about the new updates suggest that they will bring them at the last moment in Barcelona (pre-tactic) but massa’s statement after the test deny this version he said that they weren’t ready and the new components will be available only this night & only Fernando will test them tomorrow
   1. 

      Todfod (@todfod)
      2nd May 2012, 19:30

      They spent 2 entire days just running the old car? How do they expect to gain any ground on rival teams at this rate?
      1. 

         BBT (@bbt)
         2nd May 2012, 20:48

         Well they will gain ground on Mclaren that are going backwards.
         1. 

            Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
            2nd May 2012, 22:17

            @bbt – it isn’t strictly true that Mclaren are going backwards, they had gearbox trouble which gave them limited running at one of the onlydry spells thus far. I’m not disagreeing that they may be unable to make any significant improvements however when the likes of Red Bull & Lotus appear to be improving noticeably.
            As for Ferrari, to have any chance of keeping Alonso in title contention (Massa I believe just isn’t fast enough to bring home the points, he has after all only scored 2 and is currently 17th in the standings) they need to be within at the very most 4 tenths of the front runners, which means they will need a significant upgrade to bring to Catalunya.
            I think we may well see the first win under the team name Lotus since I believe 1986.
            1. 

               ScuderiaVincero (@scuderiavincero)
               3rd May 2012, 7:19

               I think we may well see the first win under the team name Lotus since I believe 1986.

               @vettel1, it was 1987 actually, at Detroit :)
            2. 

               Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
               3rd May 2012, 12:30

               @scuderiavincerno – I knew it was detroit but coyuldnt remeber the year, thanks for that;)
            3. 

               Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
               3rd May 2012, 12:37

               * @scuderiavincero – I knew it was Detroit but I wasn’t sure if it was ’86 or ’87, so thanks for that;)
            4. 

               ScuderiaVincero (@scuderiavincero)
               3rd May 2012, 17:00

               @vettel1 the pleasure’s mine :)
7. 

   thespuditron (@)
   2nd May 2012, 21:03

   I know it’s only testing, but it’s nice to see Team Enstone on the top of the timesheets. :)
8. 

   cjpdk (@cjpdk)
   2nd May 2012, 21:03

   Every single post on a testing report;

   “It is impossible to extrapolate information from testing. Now, I will extrapolate information from testing”
9. 

   varun (@varun)
   3rd May 2012, 0:18

   An hydraulic glitch confined him to the pits for most of the say, only emerging to set a time in the final hour of running.

   should that read
   An hydraulic glitch confined him to the pits for most of the say, only emerging to set a time in the final hour of running.?
   1. 

      nefor (@nefor)
      3rd May 2012, 0:47

      You mean

      …most of the day…

      I assume?
10. 

    Kimi4WC
    3rd May 2012, 1:41

    We should have plenty of new detail pictures from all teams on day 3 :)
11. 

    McBride (@mcbride)
    3rd May 2012, 1:42

    I’m curious if there would have been any benefit to McLaren getting Paffet to drive Hamilton’s gearbox (changed in China) to failure..? Probably not, but I’m kinda more curious if that’s even legal?
    1. 

       bwells88 (@bwells88)
       3rd May 2012, 2:07

       I think in testing you can use any part you wish and they don’t count as “race” gearboxes… 8)
       1. 

          Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
          3rd May 2012, 6:41

          I recall Keith saying somewhere that teams have a separate allocation of engines for testing. I imagine the same would apply to gearboxes. The FIA would no doubt be very upset if teams deliberately broke parts in testing to escape a penalty in the race.

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