Hulkenburg puts Force India on top in pre-season testing

Barcelona: German driver Nico Hulkenburg set the pace as Sahara Force India topped the time-sheets on the second day of the Formula One pre-season testing here. Hulkenburg clocked the fastest lap time of 1:22.608sec in 112 laps. “We started the day with some aero work – trying some constant speed runs and collecting more data. Then, the rest of the day was spent working on the balance of the car and trying out all four tyre compounds,” he said. [caption id=“attachment_223273” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“German driver Nico Hulkenburg set the pace as Sahara Force India topped the time-sheets on the second day of the Formula One pre-season testing in Barcelona. AFP”]  [/caption] “I did some short runs, long runs and just got a feel for the tyre characteristics and how the car reacts to them. Once again the car has been very drivable all day and our baseline set-up has proved to be a good starting point for running all the different compounds,” he added. The team’s Chief Engineer Jakob Andreasen said the second day of testing went exactly to the plan. “Nico’s second day in the car saw a continuation of the programme we started yesterday with aero runs, balance and set-up work, and a full day of tyre comparisons. We got through all the items on the job list and once again the car has run faultlessly, which is a credit to the design team at Silverstone,” he said. “Nico’s feedback on the handling of the car continues to be positive and we now have a good feel for the set-up directions we need to take to extract even more performance,” he added. Paul Di Resta will drive the car during today and tomorrow’s testing. PTI