Jerez: Rubens takes the honours on Day Two

Rubens Barrichello set the pace on the second day at Jerez, which could only be described as wet, windy and interrupted.

Wet, dry and even wetter conditions in Jerez caused havoc for the 11 teams in action at Jerez on Thursday, a situation that wasn't helped by four red flag situations in the morning alone.

Ferrari's Felipe Massa was quick out of the blocks, setting the fastest time in the opening hour, a 1:28.879. The running, though, was cut short as Timo Glock caused the first stoppage of the day, beaching his Virgin VR01 in the gravel.

The second was due to the weather as the session was halted because of standing water out on track while Rubens Barrichello was responsible for a very brief pause in the action when he suffered a minor off. Barrichello, though, kept his Cosworth engine running and soon had his FW32 back in the fray.

The four red flag belonged to Lotus driver Heikki Kovalainen. After a smokey start to the day and a two-hour lay-off in the team's garage, Kovalainen returned to the track and started putting in some comfortable laps. It didn't last, though.

The Finn lost control of his T127 at Turn 3, taking off the front wing and effectively putting an end to Lotus's day. Tech boss Mike Gascoyne explained: "Spare on its way, but will not be here until 2am in the morning, so no more running today."

Kovalainen's red flag did, however, offer some good news for his rivals as during the break the rain finally let up and with it the lap times began to fall.

Barrichello took the opportunity to edge ahead of Sebastian Vettel while Renault's Vitaly Petrov came from the very back of the pack to jump into second place, just 0.683s off the Williams driver's pace.

The trio held their positions for over two hours and it appeared as if they would remain in the day's podium positions when, with 23 minutes left in the session, the fifth red flag of the day was waved, once again due to water on the track.

12 minutes of the day's play remained when the session was green-lighted, sparking a dash as the drivers ventured out for their last gasp at glory.

Nico Rosberg improved to take fourth place with a 1:28.515 on a day dedicated to "race procedures" due to the ever-changing conditions.

Massa ended fifth on the timesheets, unable to improve on the 1:28.879 that he clocked in the opening hour. It was a rather frustrating outing for Ferrari as Massa's F10 suffered a "technical issue" during the morning session while in the afternoon, the Italian marque complained about the conditions at Jerez.

"We're just carrying on some work on race procedures as the track conditions are not really helpful to do anything different..." Ferrari reported. "We've done several pit stops: it's time to train the crew for Bahrain!"

Pedro de la Rosa, Paul di Resta, who handed over to team-mate Tonio Liuzzi for the afternoon session and Glock completed the top eight.

It was a much better showing from Glock's Virgin team, who came back from their earlier difficulties to complete 72 laps, finishing 3.331s off the pace.

Meanwhile, it was a quiet day for Lewis Hamilton. The Brit completed just 55 laps and finished tenth overall.

Unofficial Times
1. R. Barrichello Williams FW32 1:27.145 97 laps
2. V. Petrov Renault R30 1:27.828 +0.683 56 laps
3. S. Vettel Red Bull Racing RB6 1:28.162 +1.017 70 laps
4. N. Rosberg Mercedes GP W01 1:28.515 +1.370 70 laps
5. F. Massa Ferrari F10 1:28.879 +1.734 91 laps
6. P. de la Rosa Sauber C29 1:29.691 +2.546 8 laps
7. P. di Resta Force India VJM-03 1:30.344 +3.199 33 laps
8. T. Glock Virgin Racing VR-01 1:30.476 +3.331 72 laps
9. V. Liuzzi Force India VJM-03 1:30.666 +3.521 23 laps
10. L. Hamilton McLaren MP4-25 1:30.979 +3.834 55 laps
11. S. Buemi Toro Rosso STR5 1:32.678 +5.533 56 laps
12. H. Kovalainen Lotus F1 T127 1:33.554 +6.409 30 laps

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