Valencia Day Three: Fernando delights fans

Spanish fans turned up in their droves to watch Fernando Alonso behind the wheel of a Ferrari for the first time and their man didn't disappoint on the final day of testing in Valencia.

Four kilometres of traffic - as the official Ferrari website puts it - lined up outside the Ricardo Tormo track in the morning. In fact the queues were so long that it created a traffic jam at the exit of the Valencia-Madrid highway. By mid-afternoon a 36,400 strong crowd packed the circuit to see their hero in action.

Alonso, who was driving the F10 for the first time, put on a show for those who turned up and set the fastest time of the day - and the week - in the morning session. Much to the delight of the home fans, the rest of the pack failed to better the double World Champion's time of 1:11.470 during the day.

The Ferrari website reports that Alonso's "first impressions were positive, although it is still too early to draw any conclusions regarding its competitiveness on an absolute level.

"What is important is that Fernando could drive without interruptions to gain confidence with the car and getting closer to the team and the working methods, which are, let's not forget, completely new for him."

The thousands of fans had even more reasons to cheer as two more Spaniards, Pedro de la Rosa and Jamie Alguersauri, were second and fourth respectively.

De la Rosa's Sauber was 0.624 off Alonso's pace in second place while youngster Alguersauri was fourth. De la Rosa's running, though, was cut short in the morning as his mechanics had to repair the damage done to his car when he tried to pass Nico Hulkenberg's Williams on the inside but instead touched him.

Although Hulkenberg's FW32 escaped harm, de la Rosa's Sauber crew spent almost two hours repairing the floor, front wing and the engine cover.

Sandwiched inbetween de la Rosa and Alguersuari was seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher with a best time of 1:12.438.

The German, though, didn't have it all his own way on Wednesday, ending his running with half-an-hour left on the clock. Autosport reports that Schumacher said it was a "little hydraulic leak" that put an end to his test.

It was Jenson Button, though, who did the fewest laps on Wednesday as the Brit took his time in the morning adjusting to life at McLaren and running system checks on his MP4-25. Finally underway, the reigning F1 Champ completed 82 laps with a best time of 1:12.951, which put him in fifth place.

Meanwhile, the battle of the rookies raged throughout the day as Vitaly Petrov and Hulkenberg tried to escape the bottom of the timesheets. It was Petrov in the Renault, though, that took sixth place, half a second up on the 2009 GP2 Champion.

Times
1 Alonso Ferrari 1:11.470 127 laps
2 de la Rosa Sauber 1:12.094 80 laps
3 Schumacher Mercedes 1:12.438 82 laps
4 Alguersuari Toro Rosso 1:12.576 97 laps
5 Button McLaren 1:12.951 82 laps
6 Petrov Renault 1:13.097 75 laps
7 Hulkenberg Williams 1:13.669 126 laps

Source: Valencia Day Three: Fernando delights fans - Planet-F1 News from planet-f1.com