Sauber had a ‘productive and busy’ day as the second pre-season test of the season got underway in Jerez with Sergio Perez completing 94 laps at the wheel of the C30.
The Mexican rookie was second on the timesheets with a fastest lap of 1:21.483 – seventh tenths off the pace of Felipe Massa, who was the quickest driver today.
“I'm very happy with how the day went,” said Perez. “We covered a good mileage today and again I learnt a lot. I'm getting more and more confident with all the procedures with the team and the car. I'm looking forward to another busy day tomorrow.”
Technical director James Key explained how the team had gone about their business on this first day in Jerez, mentioning a rather peculiar fuel strategy in the process: “In the morning we started off with some base line runs,” he said. “Before we concentrated on set-up and worked on the braking system we also planned to run out of fuel, which was why the car stopped out on the track. In the afternoon we carried out back to back comparisons to learn more about the mechanical set up of the car.
“Although there were several red flags in the afternoon, we have found some good directions for further work. We only used the medium and hard tyre compounds today. In the afternoon we used no more than three sets of the harder ones, and they certainly degrade, but not so badly that we could not learn anything from them.
Perez returns to the car tomorrow, before handing it over to team-mate Kamui Kobayashi for the remainder of the four-day test.
