Valencia, 22 June

A busy day for Scuderia Ferrari on which Fernando Alonso completed three laps more than Sunday’s race distance of 57 laps, on his way to fifth place on the final time sheet. In the other F2012, Felipe Massa did two laps less than a Grand Prix at this city circuit, ending up fifteenth. With aero testing and tyre evaluation on the agenda, the lap times meant as little as usual on a Friday. Both men had plenty of items on the job sheet, as today’s three hours of track time were again split between preparations for the European Grand Prix and testing for the short and longer term future, starting with this weekend itself.

Topping the time sheet at the end of the day was the reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel, whose best lap was a 1.39.334. All the way down to Felipe in 15th place, the drivers were all within the same second, suggesting this is going to be another closely contested weekend. Nico Hulkenberg was second fastest for Force India, ahead of the Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi. In the morning session, Ferrari Driver Academy student Jules Bianchi, stood in for Hulkenberg in the Force India, for whom he is reserve driver. He was fifteenth fastest at the end of the first 90 minutes.

While many of the drivers feel that, although it is located in a city, Valencia is not a true street circuit, one aspect of these temporary venues that it does possess is that the track surface tends to be very dirty at first. This morning that problem was compounded by a very strong wind that, as well as blowing away yesterday’s very high temperatures, also blew litter and other debris onto the track. The wind was strong enough to actually affect the cars at some points, but the situation improved in the afternoon, as the wind dropped and the track began to get rubbered in. Tomorrow, the focus in the Ferrari camp shifts more towards qualifying and the race in the final hour of free practice which starts at 11 in the morning.