Kimi Raikkonen and Paul di Resta were the only drivers to go quicker than 1m20s © Getty Images
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Raikkonen fastest in first morning of testing
Kimi Raikkonen marked his official Formula One return with the fastest time of the first day of pre-season testing at the Circuito de Jerez.
Raikkonen's time of 1:19.670 set during a productive morning for Lotus went unbeaten throughout the day as the 2007 world champion clocked up 75 laps. Paul di Resta was the only other driver to drop below the 1m20s barrier as he set a best time of 1:19.772 during his 101 laps in Force India's new VJM05.
Nico Rosberg ended the day third quickest, despite handing the W02 over to Michael Schumacher in the afternoon. Schumacher didn't get as much track time as Rosberg, but still managed to set the sixth fastest time. Ahead of him was Mark Webber in the new Red Bull, who slowly chipped away to improve his time to fourth quickest after a delayed start to his running. Adrian Newey explained that the lack of an early appearance was due to the late arrival of parts from the factory.
"It was a really silly little problem actually," he said. "The rear wing assembly, we designed it to give a quick check over between the launch photography on Sunday and today. So that was late coming down and the fog at Jerez stopped the aircraft landing and sent it to Seville. So we were stuck waiting for it to get from Seville to here."
Between Webber and Schumacher was Daniel Ricciardo, who set a time of 1:20.694 despite stopping out on track halfway through the afternoon, with the team explaining: "Car suffered a drop in oil pressure and the engine protection system shut it down. Nothing serious but not enough time to fix it before 5pm"
There was one other red flag which was caused by Kamui Kobayashi's Sauber. The C31 came to a halt after the car ran out of fuel in what was likely to be a fuel consumption test, but Kobayashi still managed to complete 106 laps on his way to the seventh quickest time.
The only other significant problem of the day came at Caterham, where a problem with the starter motor scuppered any running in the final couple of hours.
Times
| Driver | Car | Time | Laps | |
| 1. | Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus E20 | 1:19.670 | 74 |
| 2. | Paul di Resta | Force India VJM05 | 1:19.772 | 101 |
| 3. | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes W02 | 1:20.219 | 56 |
| 4. | Mark Webber | Red Bull RB8 | 1:20.496 | 54 |
| 5. | Daniel Ricciardo | Toro Rosso STR7 | 1:20.694 | 57 |
| 6. | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes W02 | 1:20.794 | 42 |
| 7. | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber C31 | 1:21.353 | 106 |
| 8. | Jenson Button | McLaren MP4-27 | 1:21.530 | 61 |
| 9. | Felipe Massa | Ferrari F2012 | 1:22.815 | 69 |
| 10. | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham CT01 | 1:23.178 | 28 |
| 11. | Pastor Maldonado | Williams FW34 | 1:23.371 | 25 |
| 12. | Pedro de la Rosa | HRT F111 | 1:23.676 | 44 |
© ESPN EMEA Ltd.
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Comments: 8
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ESPN Staff
I'm not quite sure whether Lotus will be challenging the front runners but performances like this have shown that the Iceman haven't lost anything.
Posted byBravo Kimi...... welcome to the jungle of race
Posted byThis season.. Kimi will rule ICEMAN COMETH 8)
Posted byAnyone reckon Ferrari is rather quiet this time around during the testing? Sandbagging perhaps? Or simply just not fast enough? Lets hope there's plenty in their pockets...
Posted byYeah Kimi....good start....cant wait to see you rock as well in Melbourne and the rest of races............
Posted byKimi wait till the race really gets going, whether you will be able to get even near the fast guys.
Posted byFor all people who questiones Kimi's motivation, so waht you people gonna say now???????
Posted byandddd.... it has begun... =)