The opening day was a special "Young Driver Day" extravaganza, an opportunity so eagerly-awaited by the teams that only three turned up.
Of the three drivers used, Estonian Marko Asmer, fresh from a dismal half-season in GP2, was fastest in the BMW Sauber, some 3 seconds clear of Spaniard Dani Clos, who was testing for Williams. Clos, an F3 Euroseries man, drove an FW30 fitted with the new KERS device as Williams tested the tempermental unit for the first time. The final driver was Brit Mike Conway, another underwhelming GP2 man, who drove a KERS-fitted Honda. His day was curtailed after just 20 laps with a mysterious wiring problem.
Day 1 Times:
1 Asmer (BMW Sauber) 1:20.189 (79), 2 Clos (Williams-Toyota) 1:23.224 (75), 3 Conway (Honda) 1:24.123 (20).
Day 2
BMW Sauber continued to set the pace on day two of the test, in a far more meaningful day of work which saw every team bar Ferrari and Force India send out a car. Tester Christian Klien ended the day some three tenths of a second clear of nouveau race winner Sebastian Vettel after completing 84 laps in his F1.08.
Vettel ended second, though he was in the Red Bull car as opposed to his Toro Rosso (though by and large, they are the same car), in his first test for the team that he will drive for in 2009. Given that he ended a mere three tenths clear of the rather average Sebastian Buemi in the Toro Rosso, he may be forgiven that he is making a big mistake, but nevertheless the German would get a second day of bimbling in the RBR4 on day three before he returned to the more familiar surroundings of the STR pit.
Ending the day in fourth was sometime McLaren tester Gary Paffett, as the team had their first play around with the KERS unit, along with testing some new aero gubbins to be introduced for the end of the season. Paffett ended the day ahead of Renault tester Lucas di Grassi and Honda jobber Alex Wurz.
The big story of the day though, was Kazuki Nakajima's Williams, which boasted the team's new 2009-spec rear end. The narrow rear wing and low, squat diffuser layout may have looked like a bad photoshop job, but it ran free of many problems, some four seconds off Klien's ultimate pace. Though with this being a 2008 Williams at heart, that probably translates as more like two seconds in general.
Day 2 Times:
1 Klien (BMW Sauber) 1:19.537 (84), 2 Vettel (Red Bull-Renault) 1:19.878 (60), 3 Buemi (Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 1:20.209 (88), 4 Paffett (McLaren-Mercedes) 1:20.602 (52), 5 Kobayashi (Toyota) 1:20.769 (94), 6 Di Grassi (Renault) 1:20.853 (90), 7 Wurz (Honda) 1:21.123 (71), 8 Nakajima (Williams-Toyota) 1:23.171 (61).
Day 3
If Vettel had a good day on day two, he had a better one on day three, topping the time sheets in his final test with his new team until the end of the season. The form boy of the sport ended the day quickest, ahead of Nick Heidfeld, who continued a strong testing session for BMW Sauber. Heidfeld managed almost twice as many laps as Vettel over the day, though rain in the afternoon truncated many teams days on track.
Third went to the Renault of Lucas di Grassi, the GP2 racer and official team tester cementing his push for a race seat with the team in 2009, though he ended the day nearly a second behind Vettel's ultimate pace. He was ahead of McLaren tester Pedro de la Rosa, who finished up fourth, and Alex Wurz, who somehow willed his Honda into fifth place overall.
Sixth went to Takuma Sato, who made a return to the cockpit of an F1 car in order to help Red Bull flog cans of caffeinated pop in Japan. Or maybe because he's really good, we don't know. Either way, he ended the day down in 6th, albeit setting a faster time than Buemi had managed on day two from fewer laps. Toyota tester Kamui Kobayashi and Williams driver Kazuki Nakajima completed the runners.
Day 3 Times:
1 Vettel (Red Bull-Renault) 1:18.001 (37), 2 Heidfeld (BMW Sauber) 1:18.167 (70), 3 Di Grassi (Renault) 1:18.999 (36), 4 De la Rosa (McLaren-Mercedes) 1:19.281 (39), 5 Wurz (Honda) 1:19.499 (79), 6 Sato (Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 1:19.574 (49), 7 Kobayashi (Toyota) 1:19.863 (47), 8 Nakajima (Williams-Toyota) 1:21.892 (60).
Day 4
The final day of testing for the season was predictably hectic, particularly after the loss of running time due to the soggy weather on day three.
Pedro de la Rosa ended the day quickest for McLaren, ahead of a busy Nick Heidfeld for BMW, as the title contenders moved clear of the rest of the field. De La Rosa also found time to conduct the first KERS test for the team. Lucas di Grassi ended third for Renault, ahead of Sebastian Vettel, who returned to his current team having finished messing around with the Red Bull.
Sebastian Buemi got a second day of running, although after having spent the second day showcasing himself to Toro Rosso, he was back in a Red Bull here. Timo Glock, the busiest man of the day, ended 6th, ahead of Alex Wurz and Nico Rosberg, who completed a terribly slow test session for Williams.
With the final test of the year over, Ferrari missing this test in order to spend their time testing privately at Fiorano and Mugello, while Force India probably didn't have the cash to turn up, everyone's attention will return to the racing, starting in Singapore next weekend.
Day 4 Times:
1 De la Rosa (McLaren-Mercedes) 1:18.992 (90), 2 Heidfeld (BMW Sauber) 1:19.250 (98), 3 Di Grassi (Renault) 1:19.280 (102), 4 Vettel (Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 1:19.470 (93), 5 Buemi (Red Bull-Renault) 1:20.005 (84), 6 Glock (Toyota) 1:20.482 (111), 7 Wurz (Honda) 1:22.658 (51), 8 Rosberg (Williams-Toyota) 1:22.806 (102).
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