Maybe it’s because of the shorter than usual break since the last race of 2011, but by Day 2 of the Jerez test, it felt like business as usual in the world of Formula 1.
The action is constant here with the track open for business from 9 in the morning until 5 at night, allowing everyone to get in plenty of running. In this case, “everyone” meant eleven of the twelve teams, as Marussia have not yet put in an appearance.
Daniel completed a nice round 100 laps in the STR7, which equates to 442.3 kilometres. This puts the Australian fourth on the list of high-milers, behind Heikki Kovalainen, on 139 laps for the newly named Caterham, Michael Schumacher on 132 for Mercedes and Kimi Raikkonen on 117 for Lotus. We are not assigning any importance to lap times, but for the record, Ricciardo was third quickest today, behind Schumacher and Mark Webber in the Red Bull. If Daniel had driven those 400 odd kilometres south from his home city of Perth, Australia, he would have reached a small town called Denmark.
Tomorrow, it’s the turn of our real rookie, Jean-Eric Vergne to get behind the wheel of STR 7 for the first time. The Frenchman is no stranger to us, having tested with the team and run on Friday morning at three Grands Prix last year. Nevertheless, the first part of tomorrow will be primarily given over to ensuring he is comfortable in the car, because even though he had the usual seat fitting back in the cockpit at the factory, the world can look quite different when the car is out on track.
Daniel Drives To Denmark