» Valencia Test: Alonso fastest on Day 2

Fernando Alonso has taken Ferrari to the top of the timesheets on the second day of the first pre-season test at Valencia Ricardo Tormo circuit on Wednesday.

Sebastian Vettel highlighted the new Red Bull’s underlying pace by finishing second overall, while Paul di Resta was third-quickest in the 2010 Force India.

Conditions were once again dry and sunny, although teams were faced with chilly conditions at the start of the day with thermometers reading just 2ºC (36ºF) when the track was opened for running at 9am local time. Once the day got going, conditions improved, with the mercury nudging 17°C (63ºF) in the afternoon.

Several drivers had their first outings of the 2010 season, with Team Lotus also debuting its Renault-powered T128 chassis for the first time. The team did not run on the first day of testing, exchanging its allocation in place of a private day’s testing on the circuit on Friday.

Heikki Kovalainen finished at the bottom of the running with a power steering problem after only a few laps, but reported that the new car already had better handling characteristics than its more conservative predecessor.

Red Bull Racing elected to split its running between Sebastien Vettel and Mark Webber, with the German running in the morning and the Australian allocated the afternoon’s driving duties. But it was a day of limited running for Webber, who managed just a handful of laps in the last half-hour of the day after time was lost with the mechanics repairing an issue with the pedals on the new RB7.

Other names to make their 2011 track debut were Lewis Hamilton – in the older-spec McLaren – and Robert Kubica, who will have back-to-back days in the Renault R31. The duo finished fourth- and fifth-quickest, respectively.

Sixth-fastest was Nico Rosberg in the new Mercedes GP, enjoying considerably more running in the new car after an hydraulics problem limited his running the day before.

Finishing higher up the timesheets than normal was Timo Glock, who took the older-spec Virgin Racing VR-01 to the giddy heights of seventh-fastest and two seconds adrift of Alonso’s best lap.

Two GP2 graduates in the form of Pastor Maldonado (Williams) and Sergio Pérez (Sauber) also got their first taste of the 2011 machinery, with Pérez finishing ninth-quickest and Maldonado a spot behind.

The Toro Rosso pairing of Sébastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari rounded out the top-twelve, followed by Webber.

Narain Karthikeyan finished up second-slowest of the fifteen runners of the day, but raised a few eyebrows when he peaked as high as sixth-fastest with a rapid lap time from seemingly nowhere, although that was later disallowed when it emerged he had cut the circuit.

The day’s running was interrupted by three red flags, the first of which was caused by Rubens Barrichello parking his Williams with an electrical problem half an hour after the day’s running began.

Just twenty minutes after proceedings at been restarted, Paul di Resta spun backwards into the gravel a Turn 2, thankfully arresting his Force India’s speed before he rear-ended the tyre barriers.

Buemi was the cause for the final stoppage, when he parked his Toro Rosso on the start/finish straight.

Valencia Pre-Season Test (Day 2) Lap Times:

	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
1.	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari F150	1:13.307	108
2.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Renault RB7	+ 0.307	43
3.	Paul di Resta	Force India Mercedes VJM03*	+ 0.537	111
4.	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren Mercedes MP4-25*	+ 1.046	83
5.	Robert Kubica	Renault R31	+ 1.105	104
6.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP W02	+ 1.338	69
7.	Timo Glock	Virgin Racing Cosworth VR-01*	+ 2.101	34
8.	Rubens Barrichello	Williams Cosworth FW33	+ 2.716	51
9.	Sergio Pérez	Sauber Ferrari C30	+ 2.891	42
10.	Pastor Maldonado	Williams Cosworth FW33	+ 2.959	29
11.	Sébastien Buemi	Toro Rosso Ferrari STR6	+ 3.052	46
12.	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso Ferrari STR6	+ 3.167	64
13.	Mark Webber	Red Bull Renault RB7	+ 4.058	17
14.	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT Cosworth F110*	+ 4.462	80
15.	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus Renault T128	+ 7.342	15