Raikkonen fastest in final morning of final testing

Kimi Raikkonen showed more pace for Lotus as he set the quickest time of the test so far on the final morning of testing in Barcelona.

After a day disrupted by a power steering failure and rain on Saturday, Raikkonen completed 43 laps and was able to snatch top spot with a late lap on soft tyres. His time of 1:22.030 was 0.064s quicker than the previous best time set by Sergio Perez yesterday, which was also posted on softs.

Fernando Alonso gave Ferrari some late encouragement by setting the second fastest time and completing 63 laps. After the team's decision to cancel all driver interviews throughout the remainder of the weekend yesterday raised further concerns over its true position, Alonso topped the timesheets for most of the session with a 1:22.250 before Raikkonen's late lap.

Williams is splitting its drivers across the final day and Bruno Senna enjoyed a trouble-free morning, completing 53 laps on his way to third quickest in 1:22.296. Williams was even able to finish its programme early and start setting the car up for Pastor Maldonado half an hour before the lunch break.

Nico Hulkenberg was fourth quickest with a 1:22.312, but the main focus of his day will be a race simulation in the final session after he lost a lot of running on Friday afternoon with a driveline problem. He was just ahead of Kamui Kobayashi who spent most of the morning doing setup work and was 0.074s slower than Hulkenberg with a lap on supersoft tyres.

McLaren had a more productive day with its new package than Saturday, with Lewis Hamilton completing 60 laps and setting a best time just 0.4s slower than Raikkonen. Hamilton has already completed more mileage than team-mate Jenson Button managed with the upgraded car, and will spend the afternoon trying to find its optimal setup.

Vitaly Petrov received his new seat for the CT01 this weekend and ended the session seventh with a 1:22.795, just 0.1s slower than team-mate Heikki Kovalainen managed yesterday as Caterham again ran the supersofts. Michael Schumacher was eighth quickest with his best time set on soft tyres in the final half hour, 0.4s ahead of Daniel Ricciardo.

It was a difficult morning for Red Bull, however, as Sebastian Vettel only completed 15 laps. While early attention was attracted by umbrellas covering the rear of the car, when Vettel went out for his first run something appeared to fall off the front of the RB8 on the pit straight. The team aborted and Vettel didn't reappear until the final hour and a quarter of the session, completing two further short runs.

Times

	Driver	Car	Time	Laps
1.	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus E20	1:22.030	41
2.	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari F2012	1:22.250	63
3.	Bruno Senna	Williams FW34	1:22.296	53
4.	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India VJM05	1:22.312	45
5.	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber C31	1:22.386	57
6.	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren MP4-27	1:22.430	60
7.	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham CT01	1:22.795	43
8.	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes W03	1:22.939	57
9.	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso STR7	1:23.393	53
10.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull RB8	1:23.608	15

ESPNF1

Chris Medland is assistant editor at ESPNF1

© ESPN EMEA Ltd.

Final 2012 Phoenix Subway Fresh Fit 500 Driver Ratings - Post Q

Micah Roberts’ Top 10 Driver Ratings
Subway Fresh Fit 500
Phoenix International Raceway
Sunday, March 4, 2012 - 12:16 pm (PDT)

Rating    Driver     Odds      Practice 1   Practice 2   Qualified   Phoenix*

 1. Kasey Kahne 12/1             5th              14th            10th         1st
2011 fall winner, sixth in spring; had best 10 consecutive lap average in final practice.
 2. Greg Biffle 18/1                 3rd              13th             7th         13th
Two-time runner-up; using same third-place New Hampshire chassis from fall of 2011.
 3. Jimmie Johnson 7/1         24th               7th             4th         14th
Four-time winner with a track record 5.4 average finish in 17 starts, seventh or better 14 times.
 4. Tony Stewart 7/1               1st              23rd             2nd         3rd
1999 winner and three-time runner-up; using winning New Hampshire chassis from 2011 Chase.
 5. Jeff Gordon 8/1                17th               5th            30th        32nd
Two-time winner, the last coming in this race last season; 10.9 average finish in 26 starts.
 6. Mark Martin 40/1               2nd              15th            1st          16th       
Two-time winner, the last coming in 2009; second best average finish of 9.0 in 30 starts.
 7. Carl Edwards 7/1              16th             27th            24th         2nd
2010 fall winner and arguably the fastest car of the last three events; debuts new car.
 8. Kyle Busch 7/1                   7th              25th            12th        36th
2005 winner while driving No. 5 Hendrick car, runner-up last spring; using 2011 Phoenix chassis.
 9. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 25/1    31st             11th            29th        24th
Two-time winner, the last coming in 2004. Using new chassis; fast in race trim during practice.
10. Ryan Newman 20/1          4th                9th             6th          5th
2010 winner with four straight top5 finishes; using back-up car after wrecking in first practice.

* Results from the November 13, 2011 race at Phoenix, the last race run on the track and first under new configuration.
     
Odds courtesy of the Las Vegas Hilton Super Book.

Micah Roberts, a former sports book director, has been setting NASCAR lines in Las Vegas since 1995. For more Roberts insights and post-practice analysis on the race, go to VegasInsider.com, TheLinemakers.com or follow MicahRoberts7 on Twitter.

Kahne was very strong in practice

Phoenix Betting Notes
Kasey Kahne won me over in the first Phoenix practice session with the top average speeds and the fifth fastest single lap. When he came out in the final practice with the best 10 consecutive lap average, I was all in. Those are the type of valuable categories that all the great cars of the past have had in recent wins at Phoenix, such as Carl Edwards and Jimmie Johnson.

I still like all the rest of the Hendrick cars to do well, even Johnson despite all the dark clouds hanging over their garage. Playing all of them in match-ups should present some value as long as they aren’t matched up against each other. It wouldn’t be a stretch to see all four cars finish within the top-8. 

Tony Stewart was great in qualifying trim and led the single fastest lap in the first session, but I’m looking to down-grade him a bit and shy away completely. When the race trim came on, Stewart wasn’t that good, although he was third behind Kahne in best 10 consecutive lap average.

The top long shots of the race are Mark Martin, Greg Biffle, and Ryan Newman. Even though Newman went to a back-up car, it still ran just as good in the final practice. These type of tracks have been Newman’s best since joining Stewart-Haas.


Match-up of the Week:
Kasey Kahne -105 vs. Denny Hamlin: Needless to say, I like Kahne a lot in this race. I will play him in almost any match-up that doesn’t involve another Hendrick car. Even though I don’t like Stewart as much, I would stay away from that sneaky good driver as well. But everyone else at a reasonable price where I don't have to lay over -135, It’s all Kahne.  

Starting Lineup

Phoenix Practice Times: MWR's Truex Jr and Bowyer Fastest, But Kahne Looks Strongest Overall

By Micah Roberts

Kahne had the best 10 consecutive lap average in final practice (Getty)

Martin Truex Jr led the way with the fastest lap during the final practice session Friday in preparation for Sunday’s Subway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International Raceway. With less than a minute to go in the session Truex Jr passed the top time his MWR teammate, Clint Bowyer, had just set five minutes earlier with a top speed of 139.481 mph.

Truex Jr’s speed was the fastest of both 90 minute sessions on a day the drivers had to battle with 30 mph winds. In the first practice session, Tony Stewart led the way at 138.680 mph. In both practices, the fastest times came from those in a mock qualifying trim. It was thought that the final practice session may have been used primarily for race set-up, but with about 35 minutes to go several cars changed over into their qualifying trim for the second time between Friday’s two sessions.

The driver who stood out in both race and qualifying trim was Jimmie Johnson who ran a session high 62 laps. Despite all the laps run, Johnson still managed to average 135.001 mph, something only 12 other drivers were able to do while driving considerably less laps.

Dale Earnhardt Jr stood out in race trim early on along with Brad Keselowski, Kasey Kahne, Paul Menard and Greg Biffle.

That’s all the practice we get for the weekend. It’s a bunch of jumbled times with little indication of who really is fast in race conditions. The best way to dissect what happened today to get a read on who will be fast Sunday and who is just fast in qualifying trim is looking at the average speeds and, in particular, best 10 consecutive lap average. Kahne led the way in that category followed by Johnson, Stewart, Kyle Busch and Mark Martin.

Qualifying for Sunday’s race begins Saturday at 2:35 pm (ET).

Here’s a look at the Top-5 Practice speeds from the final session:

1. Martin Truex Jr 139.481 mph (37 laps for 135.486 average speed)
2. Clint Bowyer 139.227 mph (27 laps for 135.075 average)
3. Juan Pablo Montoya 139.002 mph (37 laps for 135.610 average)
4. Kurt Busch 138.841 mph (35 laps for 135.219 average)
5. Jeff Gordon 138.244 mph (59 laps for 134.962 average)

Matt Kenseth had to go to a back-up after slapping the wall early in the session. Joe Nemechek and David Gilliland also banged the wall, but no word on whether they had to go to a back-up (as if it really matters).

Phoenix Practice 2 Results


Stewart Fastest in First Practice Session

Stewart fast in qualifying trim, but not as good in race set-up (Getty)

Tony Stewart had the fastest lap in Friday’s first practice session at Phoenix International Raceway in preparation for Sunday‘s Subway Fresh Fit 500. Stewart topped the charts with two minutes remaining in the 90 minute session while in qualifying trim.

The first practice was basically split up into two sessions by the teams. The first half was used by most teams in race trim while the second half was mostly short runs in qualifying trim.

During the first half, the fastest cars in race trim were Greg Biffle, Kasey Kahne, Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon and Ryan Newman. The times drastically increased when Jeff Burton came out with a qualifying set-up and went to the top of charts. As more cars started changing over, new top times for the session continued to be set with Stewart ultimately finishing on top. Burton finished 15th fastest overall.

The practice schedule this week is another one of those goofy ones where the teams do all their practices for both race and qualifying set-ups on Friday, then qualify on Saturday with no other runs to prepare for race day. Everything a team needs to know for Sunday’s race has to be found in one of the two Friday sessions.

In the final practice, most teams will go back to race trim and do their final tinkering. The only problem is that once a team finds that perfect equation, they have to tear it down and re-set it for Saturday’s qualifying.

NASCAR has to have some good reason for this type of practice scheduling, but can’t think of any other than fuel conservation and helping under-funded teams with the cost of tires -- teams of which rarely practice anyway knowing they are going to start and park.

Next week things go back to normal in Las Vegas with the traditional qualifying practice and qualifying on Friday and then the final two practice sessions on Saturday.

Here’s a look at the Top-5 practice times from the first session:

1. Tony Stewart 138.680 mph (32 laps for 134.737 mph average)
2. Mark Martin 138.611 mph (19 laps for 134.404 mph average)
3. Greg Biffle 138.568 mph (32 laps for 134.186 average)
4. Ryan Newman 138.493 mph (34 laps for 133.586 average)
5. Kasey Kahne 138.408 mph (31 laps for 135.001 average - fastest overall)

Brendan Gaughan, Michael McDowell, Martin Truex Jr and Ryan Newman all wrecked in the final few minutes of the session. Truex Jr may not have to go with a back-up car, but the others will.

Phoenix Practice 1 Results

The final practice session on Friday should be a little more telling to who will do well in Sunday’s race. Right now, it’s hard to ignore last year’s Phoenix fall race winner, Kasey Kahne, in his new No. 5 Hendrick ride, a car that has visited victory lane in the desert multiple times.


Driver Quotes From Friday's Practice

TONY STEWART ON HOW HIS PRACTICE SESSION WAS: “I was pretty happy with it. It’s nice to come back here and kind of finish off where we left off last fall we were pretty good here in the fall. It’s nice to come back in the spring here and do it again.”

KYLE BUSCH ON HOW HIS CAR WAS IN PRACTICE: “It’s alright for a little while. Not too bad. Just shaking her in — getting it used to being back here in Phoenix. The track did a nice job of getting a lot of rubber laid down so it made it a lot easier to transition right in to trying to go fast instead of having to break in a race track and get used to all that and rubber it in and all.”

CARL EDWARDS ON HOW PRACTICE WENT: “Practice went really well for us. This is obviously a huge weekend for us with the Subway Ford being that it is the Subway race. We would really like to win this one for everybody there. Practice went really well. I think we have a very fast race car. It looks like Biffle is extremely fast as well, so we will lean on him a little bit between practices and then try to get the car tuned in for the next practice. It is really weird to see the 60 car drive by, by the way. It is like a dream when you are missing school or something. You forgot that test paper. I am driving it via Trevor.”

Grosjean fastest again on final tests day two in Barcelona

Romain Grosjean topped the timesheets for the second day in a row at the final pre-season test, as Lotus spent a productive day making up for lost time.

After heavy fog postponed the start of the day's running, 30 minutes was added to the end and Grosjean set his fastest lap - a 1:22.614 - right at the death. His Lotus clocked the headline-grabbing time on a set of soft tyres and completed over 120 laps by the end of the day.

Grosjean's time knocked Jean-Eric Vergne off the top spot, which the Toro Rosso driver had held since setting a 1:23.361 just before lunch. Vergne's best time was set on soft tyres, and he'd just gone out on supersofts when his car came to a halt at turn eight, causing the sixth of eight red flags over the course of the day. The problem turned out to be engine related and fairly serious as the Toro Rosso did not emerge from its garage until the final 30 minutes. He completed just 31 laps in total.

Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull was third fastest, 0.747s adrift of Grosjean's best time. A handful of fans at turn five were treated to the rare sight of his Red Bull grinding to a halt just before lunch, but Vettel was back on track in the afternoon and set his fastest time on medium tyres a couple of hours after lunch. Fernando Alonso set a time 0.086s slower than Vettel and clocked a new mileage record for the car with 125 laps in total, including the F2012's first race simulation.

Heikki Kovalainen showed the Caterham's potential for the first time in testing by setting a lap two seconds faster than it managed last week. His 1:23.828, set on super-soft tyres in the morning session, was 1.6s faster than his qualifying time at the Spanish Grand Prix last year and a clear sign of the progress the team has made with the new CT01.

Kamui Kobayashi's afternoon running was limited by a hydraulic problem but he still completed 73 laps in total with a best time of 1:23.836, good enough for sixth. He was just ahead of Nico Hulkenberg's Force India, which caused a red flag just after lunch due to a driveline issue and didn't leave the garage again all afternoon.

Michael Schumacher, eighth quickest, had a difficult morning after causing two red flags. The first came when he stopped at turn eight, but the second was far more spectacular as he beached his car in the gravel at turn five. He went on to complete 79 laps in total with a fastest time of 1:23.987.

Lewis Hamilton also had a low-key day, setting the ninth fastest time and clocking just 65 laps. More upgrades are expected to arrive for the McLaren overnight, meaning its weekend times will be a better indication of its true pace ahead of Melbourne.

Williams split its day between its two drivers with Pastor Maldonado completing 20 laps in the morning and Bruno Senna clocking up 48 in the afternoon. Neither came close to matching Maldonado's best time from last week, with Senna on clocking a 1:24.925 and Maldonado a 1:25.801.

Times

	Driver	Car	Time	Laps
1.	Romain Grosjean	Lotus E20	1:22.614	124
2.	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso STR7	1:23.126	31
3.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull RB8	1:23.361	85
4.	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari F2012	1:23.447	125
5.	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham CT01	1:23.828	104
6.	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber C31	1:23.836	77
7.	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India VJM05	1:23.893	33
8.	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes W03	1:23.978	79
9.	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren MP4-27	1:24.111	65
10.	Bruno Senna	Williams FW34	1:24.925	48
11.	Pastor Maldonado	Williams FW34	1:25.801	20

ESPNF1

© ESPN EMEA Ltd.

Grosjean fastest on final tests day one in Barcelona

Romain Grosjean made sure Lotus' return to testing was a positive one by going fastest on day one of the final pre-season Formula 1 test in Barcelona.

The Frenchman waited until there was less than 30 minutes remaining for the day before he set the benchmark time of 1m23.252s, using a set of Pirelli's soft tyres to eclipse Jenson Button's fastest time from the morning's session.

Faster times were a rarity in the afternoon sessions, with teams opting to use the stable track conditions to go for longer runs. Grosjean was one of only two drivers to improve after lunch, the other being Red Bull Racing's Mark Webber.

However, Webber was only able to shave a tenth off his best morning time, leaving him behind Button and Perez - both with morning times – in fourth for the day.

Behind Webber it was Nico Rosberg, the Mercedes driver the busiest of the day with 128 laps for the day, mostly completed over long stints. Jean-Eric Vergne was sixth fastest, with Toro Rosso dedicating much of the last hour to pitstop practice.

Felipe Massa had a busy afternoon, eventually completing 105 laps for the day, despite a lengthy stay in the pits after lunch. However, his best time was only good enough for eighth.

Vitaly Petrov, subbing for the ill Heikki Kovalainen, was the second busiest man of the day, putting the new Caterham through 123 laps.

His reward was avoiding the bottom of the time sheets, with Petrov ending the day 0.711s clear of Pastor Maldonado, the Williams driver completing the least number of laps for the day with just 58.

Testing resumes tomorrow at Barcelona.

Today's times

Pos  Driver         Team            Time                Laps
 1.  Grosjean       Lotus           1m23.252s           73
 2.  Button         McLaren         1m23.510s  +0.258   64
 3.  Perez          Sauber          1m23.820s  +0.568   118
 4.  Webber         Red Bull        1m23.830s  +0.578   102
 5.  Rosberg        Mercedes        1m23.992s  +0.740   128
 6.  Vergne         Toro Rosso      1m24.216s  +0.964   113
 7.  Di Resta       Force India     1m24.305s  +1.053   98
 8.  Massa          Ferrari         1m24.318s  +1.066   105
 9.  Petrov         Caterham        1m24.876s  +1.624   123
10.  Maldonado      Williams        1m25.587s  +2.335   58

Autosport



© 2012 AUTOSPORT.COM

Button fastest at start of final test

Jenson Button set the fastest time on a close morning in Barcelona, as all ten cars were separated by just two seconds.

In a clear indication of how times in testing can be misleading, Button set his best time on hard tyres having previously been quickest on softs. His headline lap of 1:23.510 came during just 27 laps of running as McLaren worked with what Martin Whitmarsh called a "fairly substantial" update on the MP4-27.

Sergio Perez was second quickest as Sauber completed a series of short runs during the morning session and not using the soft tyres. At one stage Perez was closing on Mark Webber's Red Bull by half a second a lap despite the latter being on soft tyres, but it betrayed a lack of fuel in the Sauber and he eventually brought the session to a slightly early end as another fuel run-out test saw him stop at turn 6 and cause the only red flag of the morning.

Lotus carried out some basic aerodynamic tests in the early part of the morning session before removing the sensors from the car in order to carry out some more extensive running. There appeared to be no further issues with the wishbone which forced the team to withdraw from the previous test, and Grosjean covered 38 laps as he was third fastest. His time of 1:23.959 will have been encouraging, as the team confirmed to ESPNF1 that it would be trying to condense two tests work in to the next four days.

Nico Rosberg was productive for Mercedes, with his best time of 1:23.992 coming during a soft tyre run later in the session, putting him just one thousandth of a second ahead of Webber.

Toro Rosso also had a busy morning as Jean-Eric Vergne completed 61 laps. Having set a best time of 1:24.216 Vergne also focussed on hitting his pit marks after every run. He was less than 0.1s ahead of Paul di Resta who completed some aero work before some more substantial runs later in the session.

Ferrari continued to work on the F2012 with Felipe Massa carrying out constant speed tests before later stints on the hard tyre. The close nature of the session was highlighted by the fact that Massa's time was just 0.8s slower than Button but only good enough for eighth quickest.

Vitaly Petrov was the only man to try the supersofts during the morning session and it saw him improve to within 1.4s of the quickest time. Petrov was a late replacement for the ill Heikki Kovalainen at Lotus, but still managed to complete the most laps with 67, while it was a slow start to the day for Williams as Pastor Maldonado remained in the pits for the early part of the session after completing his installation lap and ended the morning tenth.

Times

	Driver	Car	Time	Laps
1.	Jenson Button	McLaren MP4-27	1:23.510	27
2.	Sergio Perez	Sauber C31	1:23.820	56
3.	Romain Grosjean	Lotus E20	1:23.959	36
4.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes W03	1:23.992	57
5.	Mark Webber	Red Bull RB8	1:23.993	53
6.	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso STR7	1:24.216	61
7.	Paul di Resta	Force India VJM05	1:24.305	48
8.	Felipe Massa	Ferrari F2012	1:24.318	45
9.	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham CT01	1:24.876	67
10.	Pastor Maldonado	Williams FW34	1:25.587	37

ESPNF1

Chris Medland is assistant editor at ESPNF1

© ESPN EMEA Ltd.