Massa Fastest On First Pirelli Tyre Test Day

Felipe Massa was the fastest man on the first day of testing for the new Pirelli tyres.

The Brazilian driver was narrowly quicker than World Champion Sebastian Vettel.

Today wasn’t really about the times, it was about seeing how the new tyres coped on the cars, and seemingly they have worked rather well.  No major problems for any driver, only a small puncture for Vettel at the end of the session which was due to track debris puncturing the tyre rather than a failure of the wheel itself.

Felipe Massa declared himself very happy following the test.

“It was a positive day to understand the way to go next year with a tyre that is quite different to the one we had in 2010,” said Massa. “We were able to see that direction quite quickly and we understood quite easily what the tyre required from the car and driver.

“But it’s also clear there are quite a lot of things to change for next year. Next year’s car will be quite different, of course, but today was positive and I’m pleased after working with Pirelli for the first time.”

Pos  Driver              Car          Time       Laps
 1.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari      1m40.170s  94
 2.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull     1m40.500s  77
 3.  Gary Paffett        McLaren      1m40.874s  94
 4.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber       1m40.950s  83
 5.  Robert Kubica       Renault      1m41.032s  39
 6.  Rubens Barrichello  Williams     1m41.425s  91
 7.  Paul di Resta       Force India  1m41.615s  20
 8.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes     1m41.778s  81
 9.  Jaime Alguersuari   Toro Rosso   1m42.019s  71
10.  Adrian Sutil        Force India  1m42.859s  20
11.  Timo Glock          Virgin       1m44.124s  78
12.  Heikki Kovalainen   Lotus        1m44.686s  88
13.  Pastor Maldonado    Hispania     1m45.728s  83