Lotus on top as Mugello testing ends

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel was uncharacteristically off the pace during the in-season testing that took place at Mugello over the past few days.

In an interview with the Formula 1 website, Vettel said: “We now have a lot of data to get through – and that will take some time”.

He added: “It’s been a useful couple of days, and I’ve enjoyed the track a lot.”

Despite enjoying his time at Mugello, Vettel was beaten into second place by an unlikely opponent.

Lotus’s Romain Grosjean proved to be the fastest around the track, setting a best lap time of 1:21.035 on Thursday to top the timings for the second day.

He revealed that speed was not really part of Lotus’s plan – they were simply intending to test some new car parts.
With Vettel lagging a quarter of a second behind, and Fernando Alonso in third place, the lap times proved to be an added bonus for the team.

The wait still isn’t over for the next competitive fixture in the 2012 F1 calendar, as the tour reaches its European stage.
After last month’s Bahrain stage, it is not until May 11th that practice gets properly underway, this time in Catalunya for the Spanish Grand Prix.